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  1. Obtaining an MFE through PhD

    I'll agree with alain and go against Kann and say that it is a very good and sensible idea, if you can do it. Not all programmes grant masters degrees as part of the PhD programme, though, so make sure you do your research. Also beware of the possibility that you enjoy your PhD and want to...
  2. London!

    More than that. I'd guess at least £6k for a luxury apartment in that location. Given that bad quality, small, and exortionate housing even in bad areas is one of the main reasons for disliking living in London, I would say that your company shelling out a small fortune for you to live somewhere...
  3. The real Wolf of Wall Street

    Stop embarrassing yourself.
  4. The real Wolf of Wall Street

    HAHAHAHAHAHA
  5. Is day trading a dead end?

    It will be good experience, regardless.
  6. Birmingham or Queen Marry

    Neither is good for getting a quant job. Oxbridge, Imperial, UCL. After those 4, odds drop off a cliff.
  7. Do you even lift? What are your hobbies outside of the quant world?

    Yes, every person is different but we're all humans, and there is quite a large body of work on training which has shown what is and isn't effective. For natural trainers, isolation exercises are vastly inferior in terms of bang for your buck. Also, you should not vary intensity, load and...
  8. Do you even lift? What are your hobbies outside of the quant world?

    I use chins to mean any vertical plane pulling motion. Palm direction doesn't matter. Do what you prefer. Though having your palms parallel and facing each other, in front of your face, will save your shoulders if you intend to lift more than a couple of years.
  9. Do you even lift? What are your hobbies outside of the quant world?

    Chin ups. What do americans call chin ups?
  10. Do you even lift? What are your hobbies outside of the quant world?

    Cut down on the marathon training. Eat enough food.
  11. Do you even lift? What are your hobbies outside of the quant world?

    Ditch the curls and any other isolation exercises. Compound exercises only. Do a full-body workout of Squat, Bench press, Row, Chins, and Military Press 3x per week. Focus on perfect technique.
  12. CQF as a prep MFE

    That's some flawed deductive reasoning right there. I never mentioned the intelligence of either cohort. The point is that MFE's and CQF's are mostly signalling degrees. They teach lots of elementary material which anyone with a brain and dedication can learn by themselves. The advanced stuff...
  13. CQF as a prep MFE

    What does the CQF aim to achieve? What does an MFE aim to achieve?
  14. CQF as a prep MFE

    What is better: a physics degree followed by a physics degree, or a physics degree followed by a physics degree? A CQF and MFE provide the same purpose. Doing both is a pointless waste of time and money.
  15. ?

    Take the narcissistic personality test.
  16. What does it take to get hired by Goldman’s hot ‘strats’ group?

    I wonder if Slang is similar to javascript somehow?
  17. What does it take to get hired by Goldman’s hot ‘strats’ group?

    Yeh, I bet they love Javascript programmers for quant roles.
  18. What does it take to get hired by Goldman’s hot ‘strats’ group?

    Who wrote this? I highly doubt Goldman are searching for people with experience in Cocoa (Touch) and Objective C.
  19. Do you even lift? What are your hobbies outside of the quant world?

    I wouldn't really describe being a fan of Game of Thrones as a hobby. I lift. But mostly I spend my free time reading and learning new stuff.
  20. After the PhD

    A complete load of shit. Though the theoretical physics faculty of every major US university is still dominated by string theorists.
  21. Is PhD in pure math worth it?

    Einstein has a PhD in physics, he did pretty well, hence a PhD in physics is good training for life.
  22. Is PhD in pure math worth it?

    I really do not rate pure maths PhDs. Very narrow skillset, and they believe that every problem is solved by staring at a piece of paper with a pen for long enough.
  23. Is PhD in pure math worth it?

    I love that you say excluding supervisor, because it is so true!
  24. When learning C++ what did you find difficult?

    C++ is no different to any other programming language. The most difficult for thing for me about learning to program was listening to computer scientists trying to explain simple concepts very badly. After that was learning to structure programs so that they are easily read, developed...
  25. Advice

    The hardest part of course is the first step.
  26. Undergrad preparation to becoming a quantitative analyst

    Here's some advice: study what you enjoy and are interested in. Do as well as you possibly can in those studies. If you do further study, do it at the biggest brand name schools possible. Think about a career afterwards. The end.
  27. Undergrad preparation to becoming a quantitative analyst

    A little tip: nobody gives a damn where your university is ranked.
  28. The Value of a PhD and MFE Degree

    I don't think it is industry vs academia. The best academics in the world have no problem with that concept. The trap many people in academia fall into is: "What problems can I solve with what I know/the tools I have?" where as, actually, the important question is: "What problems should I solve...
  29. Georgia Tech to offer an online Computer Science master degree

    Well, there are open source products that are "brought to market" too. Look at Mozilla, for instance.
  30. The Value of a PhD and MFE Degree

    I think people confuse cause and effect here. People do not hire PhD's because they have the letters after their name. Getting a PhD for the sake of having a PhD is pointless. People hire people for their skills. It just so happens that you can learn incredible data analysis and modelling skills...
  31. Georgia Tech to offer an online Computer Science master degree

    The problem is that computer science does not equal software engineering. What people want is good software engineers, not good computer scientists. And the best way to become a software engineering is to do it. Learn a language, write code that does stuff in it, keep pushing your knowledge...
  32. Python relevance

    Google is a good place to start.
  33. Python relevance

    With regards to data.table, you've heard of pandas for python, right? A python replacement for R's data.table functionality. http://pandas.pydata.org/
  34. Python relevance

    My personal advice would be to learn concepts using Python, since it is an OOP language, and then move on to C++. Learning design patterns and algorithms using Python is straightforward, translating to C++ after that is pretty easy. Matlab and R are dying technologies since the scientific...
  35. Which degree to choose?

    What you said is true, but everyone in finance will have gone to a presitgious school, so the playing field is level in that aspect.
  36. Which degree to choose?

    Forget the rankings, they're meaningless. Masters degrees are about jumping through hoops. In order to jump through the highest hoops, and get the highest grades - which is what employers care about - then just choose the courses that you enjoy the most and the ones you have the best...
  37. PhD Advice

    1) Is a terrible idea. 2) Why an MRes first? 3) You can try and do a postdoc in mathematical finance immediately, you don't always need direct experience in your post-doc area. Figure out how to apply your background knowledge to a problem in mathematical finance, pitch it to a professor, and...
  38. Necessary to learn C#?

    Btw, I remember you used to be a big fan of Bruce Eckel's Thinking in C++. Well, here is Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Python. http://www.mindview.net/Books/TIPython
  39. SEC policy advisor: Trading is Art of War, not physics.

    In the UK recently a 20% deposit was required. For a £300,000 mortgage, that will take most people a significant number of years to build up even if they earn a very good salary. Now, thanks to the government you only need 5% and they'll give you an equity loan for the other 15%. This has led to...
  40. SEC policy advisor: Trading is Art of War, not physics.

    My girlfriend is a lawyer for a large city law firm. You can check on rollonfriday how much such lawyers get paid. She cannot get a large enough mortgage to afford even a 2 bedroom flat in a reasonable area (Richmond, Putney, Clapham). If she cannot afford a flat, then I fail to see how those...
  41. SEC policy advisor: Trading is Art of War, not physics.

    Advice #10: Do not listen to what your professors say you should do to understand finance unless they themselves have worked in the industry for 20+ years.
  42. SEC policy advisor: Trading is Art of War, not physics.

    How exactly do you think statistical mechanics will help you? You will learn about the maxwell-boltzmann distribution, how to calculate the the average velocity of a particle in a gas, how to calculate the energy changes on an isolated system under the influence of various changes of state etc...
  43. Necessary to learn C#?

    That doesn't look like Python code to me? :eek:
  44. University of Hertfordshire -Proprietary Trading MSc

    Avoid Uni of Hertfordshire like the proverbial plague. If you want a degree that isn't worth the paper it's written on, go there.
  45. Necessary to learn C#?

    Tbh, I don't buy that argument. You just move the errors from compilation stage to run-time stage, which makes little difference in the grand scheme of things. Proper testing and software engineering would eliminate those problems anyway. So it seems to me it's more a case of bad programming...
  46. Necessary to learn C#?

    No. 1) Python is a generic programming language. It can be used for matlab stuff, databases, shell scripting, web programming, server programming, building complete systems - basically everything. 2) Python is free, and open-source. If we need to explain to you why this is a significant...
  47. Necessary to learn C#?

    http://www.python.org/about/quotes/ http://python.org/about/success/ https://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/129859/how-is-python-used-in-the-real-world https://stackoverflow.com/questions/190612/where-can-i-find-real-world-examples-of-applications-written-in-python...
  48. Necessary to learn C#?

    Sorry, I meant to say python object model in the previous post. Python is an OOPL. In python there are also different styles; python incorpoates a lot of FP. What I meant was, a Java programmer coming to python will try and write a load of getters and setters for their classes instead of...
  49. Necessary to learn C#?

    The point with python is that you don't just write C in python. There is a better way, a more pythonic way such that the code is readable and more efficient to maintain. I started with https://developers.google.com/edu/python/ but then mostly picked it up from writing lots of code and looking...
  50. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    Well, I live in London, but I don't think I should be the one buying the beers :P Suffice it to say, you can't predict the future, particularly when the systems are highly interacting and non-linear as with markets. I just hope you figure that out before you can do some real damage :D
  51. Necessary to learn C#?

    Also, even in terms of high-performance computing, python is being used more and more. It is not as fast as C++, but if you want a highly parallel application you can use MPI bindings for python and there's decent OpenCL/Cuda libraries available, because in that instance scalability is more...
  52. Necessary to learn C#?

    Yes and more and more people are doing it all the time. Youtube is written in python... In finance, many hedge-funds now have significant python infrastructure, and many shops are moving from R/matlab to python for data analysis since the python libraries offer much better performance yet still...
  53. High IQ problem

    My point still stands... IQ is a waste of time. It's a farce that people still talk about it, care about it, or take it into account when forming opinions of others.
  54. High IQ problem

    Personally, I would fire the guy. I'm with Ken, though he's probably not as intolerant I am. If you are clever but unable to speak to others, come to work having had a shower, or think everything is beneath you, I have literally no time for you.
  55. High IQ problem

    Interesting, so many people who served in the US army successfully in the past would not be eligible for commission now? Since IQ is a population measure and IQ is increasing year-on-year...
  56. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    Daniel raises an important point here. Unfortunately, most hiring managers look at candidates in a superficial manner; what university did you go to? What did you study? What are your extra-curricular activities? Are you friends with the bosses son? The places you really want to work for are the...
  57. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    Experimentalists do lots of programming and stats? :confused: My friends and my time in the lab was mostly spent doing basic electronics; designing electronic parts and then soldering them together. Apart from that, lots of time spent calibrating bits of kit. Then assembling lots of kit. Oh and...
  58. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    You are not listening. One course is not weaker than the other. They serve different purposes entirely. What. Do. You. Want. To. Do. Once you've decided that, you can choose the course which lets you do the things you want to do. None of those courses are better than the other for getting you...
  59. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    Nobody is suggesting you do an MFE. We are all agreed they are an expensive waste of time, I think. We're just saying that what MSc course you do, from that list, is not relevant to any future plans to be a quant. Do what you're interested in, forget finance, at least for now. Once you've gained...
  60. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    Why are we talking about TCD again? Every thread you are involved in TCD comes up.
  61. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    I don't disagree, though it's unrelated to what I said.
  62. Necessary to learn C#?

    I'm glad for your opinion about the employability of C# skills and python skills. I respectfully disagree, however. You could perhaps try learning and using some python before you go around slating it all the time.
  63. Data Structures in C

    The people who write proper C programs use a bash shell and an editor: either VIM or emacs. If you want to get good at C, you should probably start doing the things that people who are good at C do.
  64. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    Do not use the verb 'to smash'. It's the kind of thing twats say.
  65. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    You've done a two week course on MPI in Fortran. Good for you. Go away and write a code which actually does something useful and scales linearly with the number of cores up to e.g. 500k cores. If you say that you know MPI and are good at parallel programming, that's what people expect. To your...
  66. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    None of those modules would require high performance computing simulations. None of them will even require writing a single line of code. You will be given a set of lecture notes, and expected to memorise them verbatim for your exams. Most of the lecturers in these modules wouldn't know a line...
  67. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    Your last sentence is incomprehensible. Tip #2, learn how to write. It's a life skill and it's especially useful for writing impressive cover letters to pedantic hiring managers.
  68. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    At present, you have no hope of getting into QF. Gone are the days where you can come out of Uni with an MSc or MSci and stand a chance of getting a reasonably quantitative job. What people in QF look for is skills. What skills do you have? You know basic algebra, and you know something about...
  69. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    Absolutely correct, and my exact experience after studying for a masters in theoretical physics. If you want to be a physicist, do a PhD. If you want to work in finance, do a PhD. One year masters courses are really a waste of time - avoid if at all possible. If you get to spend one year...
  70. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    Who? I wish people would stop looking at their alma mater with such rose-tinted specs. Nobody cares about TCD, especially not in finance.
  71. MSc. Theoretical Physics or Computer Science

    Agreed. None are relevant to quant finance, and doing a course like this will not help you. In the UK, the most important factor is brand name. Imperial has the best brand name in your list, but doing a masters in CS is a monumental waste of time. Finally, what do you want to do with your...
  72. Necessary to learn C#?

    Don't bother. C# can be classed as a technology, since it is a Microsoft proprietary language. Concentrate on learning concepts, not technologies. If you want to be 10x more productive but sacrifice code speed, use Python instead.
  73. Ph.d math finance in UK or USA

    If you want to be do research, then the more time spent doing your PhD (within reason) the better. If you don't want to do research, and just want to get a PhD for the certificate, then don't do it. So in general, a 5 year PhD >> 3 year PhD. Except that in the US, you spend two years doing...
  74. "Prestige" of University where gained PhD

    Thank you for your bad advice.
  75. "Prestige" of University where gained PhD

    I wonder what kind of PhD people do that they lose "soft skills". I speak with people every day, sometimes for several hours. Oh, and then I have a social life and a girlfriend too, so I suppose that helps. And this PhD arrogrance is a load of bullshit. Basically, if you are already an arrogant...
  76. "Prestige" of University where gained PhD

    I'm not screening anybody, just observing. Competency and knowing some syntax are two different things. There is no guarantee that anyone is competent in something just because they've spent time doing it. To become competent you need to push yourself, extend your boundaries, incorporate new...
  77. How to get a non-quant up to speed?

    How much maths has she done? If she hasn't done even basic calculus or algebra then I fail to see how she can understand anything in a time-frame of less than 5 years.
  78. "Prestige" of University where gained PhD

    I know people who have been programming for 5 years are still awful. Do not confuse experience with expertise.
  79. "Prestige" of University where gained PhD

    You have to learn to jump through the stupid hoops even with a PhD. Better to start sooner rather than later.
  80. "Prestige" of University where gained PhD

    Blue skies research happens in academia. If real quants who work in banks like something that academics do (very rare), then they might try and implement the model. If you have a PhD in stochastic analysis, you might have a chance doing something more theoretical, for someone. The focus on the...
  81. "Prestige" of University where gained PhD

    thomas - there is no distinction anymore. There is no such thing as a pure quant, who sits around building models. If they exist, they are rarer than faculty positions in GR, so you shouldn't aim to do that either. Doing an MFE is generally not a good idea (in the UK). Your undergraduate...
  82. "Prestige" of University where gained PhD

    Here's the truth - you are obscenely unlikely to get a faculty job in GR or theoretical physics. Therefore, your options are to not do a PhD, or to do a PhD for fun and get another job at the end of it. Assuming you really want to do the latter, and enjoying your research and your life for 3-4...
  83. BoA intern dies

    What happens if you refuse to conform to the bullshit? E.g. you strictly worked hours 8-6. Sacked rather quickly?
  84. BoA intern dies

    What do you think IBD analysts do? Sad news, and as above, an utterly pointless waste. I long for the days when the EU working time directives are strictly enforced and get-out clauses are not allowed.
  85. Quit Phd?

    Your story is inconsistent. You claim you love research, yet you don't want to do your PhD. That doesn't make sense, because especially as a PhD student, you have minimum exposure to 'academia'. You then also claim that you're bored with the constant thinking that's involved in research. This...
  86. Quantnet rank British programs?

    Let's be clear. To give yourself the best chance at getting a job in finance you should go to Oxford or Cambridge. Everything else is second best, by a long shot. Doing MPhil finance at Judge is better than doing MSc in quantitative finance at St Andrews or Edinburgh.
  87. Question about doctorate degrees for someone possibly interested in working in the quant field.

    Experimental physics is not just done at national labs. It sounds like you have about another 50 hours of your own research to do before you should be asking others questions.
  88. Question about doctorate degrees for someone possibly interested in working in the quant field.

    Where you get your PhD matters a great deal. The schools you listed are fine. As for areas that matter more - 99% of recruiters will not have the first idea what your PhD involved, so it doesn't really matter. The important thing for you to do is to embellish the truth and claim that you wrote...
  89. In london, how difficult for a Warwick financial math PhD to find a quant job

    For quant developer jobs, you need to be a good coder. As far as credentials go, computational biology @ Cantab is fine. No idea on the job market. Probably shit, which is why I'd rather do anything else than work as a quant in the current climate.
  90. In london, how difficult for a Warwick financial math PhD to find a quant job

    Oxbridge + Imperial/UCL are the main ones. In all honesty though, in the UK, only going to Oxbridge gives you maximum kudos. It's Oxbridge + 'the rest'.
  91. Poster presentation = resume booster?

    You can publish papers on using theories and applying them. Indeed this is what most papers focus on, in academia and in finance. From your response, I would be really worried about the originality of your work. Do a thorough, thorough literature review. Usually, a poster or presentation is an...
  92. PhD: does school brand matter?

    Brand name is the single most important factor on getting a job in any walk of life, not just finance.
  93. Poster presentation = resume booster?

    You completely miss the point. Presenting a poster is not for boosting your resume. Presenting a poster is for speaking to people and advertising yourself i.e. networking. For networking, it is one of the best ways to advertise yourself and your work. However, one small problem is that...
  94. Best type of PC for simulation

    I worry about the fact that wannabes quants do not know the first thing about parallel programming. Obviously the first point is that whether your simulation will run quicker or depends on your code! Is it parallel? If so, what parallel environment does it make use of? MPI, OpenMP, GPU? Hybrid?
  95. How bad are unfinished doctoral studies for CV?

    Did you get a masters degree as part of your phd programme? If so, I would leave out the ABD acronym. The whole point of a phd is the dissertation aspect. If you failed to do that, then you just spent 2-3 years doing coursework, which in my eyes is frankly useless.
  96. MOOCs

    The big problem is the purpose of modern day education. Students treat education as a product that they buy for a price. That price consists both of a sum of money and a sum of effort. Unfortunately, in the UK and US, due to the monetary cost of education, students expect to be given a 2:1...
  97. Honest Advice Please!

    Your stated motivation for career change and the reasons you gave in support of your motivation are inconsistent. It sounds to me as if you want more money rather than particularly care about working in finance. Signal processing, statistical algorithms, maths are means to an end. What is the...
  98. Better job in for physics PhD

    Troll.
  99. Relevant Mathematics Courses?

    There is a problem here. The set of ideal knowledge is so vast that no one person can cover it all in sufficient detail. What do you want to do? What is your skill set? In life you work as part of a team to achieve goals. What part of the team will you play? Consider that people do entire...
  100. Relevant Mathematics Courses?

    Completely agree with bbw. Learn something that will force you to think in a different way about maths. Abstract algebra and analysis will do that. Complex analysis did that for me, too, so I'd recommend that too. If you want to be a quant you can certainly do too much pure maths, though. Once...
  101. CQF + C++ Certificate + PhD in Signal Processing

    Logical fallacy 101: Appeal to Authority I think some of what Advait says has merit. He could probably reduce his word count by a tenth, though.
  102. CQF + C++ Certificate + PhD in Signal Processing

    How much of the C++ you know did you learn through formal courses and certificates? Your bias is painful.
  103. Best Programming languages

    What is your point? I have already said that it is straightforward to link python with C++/C/Fortran. You don't have to adopt C++ as your implementation language just for its random number generators.
  104. Best Programming languages

    I don't get it?
  105. Best Programming languages

    Lol, why should I give my real name? You don't know me. It makes no difference. If you don't like anonymity, go to linkedin. I'm not whining about C++. This thread is about the best first programming language, which is not C++. You sound like a dinosaur that is in danger of becoming extinct.
  106. Best Programming languages

    Well, it's part of my PhD, so I don't really have a choice. I needed to use the code, so it had to be ported, and I had to port it :) As to your last point, I don't really get it.
  107. Best Programming languages

    Who is suggesting writing a serious, production level random number generator in Python? Get off your high-horse, read and understand the thread properly. It is trivially easy to link python with C/C++/Fortran code, which is what any sane person would do if they wanted a 'serious' random number...
  108. Best Programming languages

    If not all of the functionality then approaching it. I don't use all of the toolboxes, but in e.g. stats and data analysis python is way ahead with pandas, scikit, scipy, numpy et. Also, python does many, many things matlab cannot. Most of my work is done on the world's biggest...
  109. Best Programming languages

    Avoid IDE's like the proverbial plague. Get yourself a linux distro and emacs/vim. IPython all you need after that.
  110. Best Programming languages

    I don't believe you know 5000 people who started coding aged 9. Knowing 5000 developers by itself is not enough, of course, but a man versed in statistics such as yourself should know that, right? The guys I know who started playing with computers aged 9 (in a techy way, not a computer games...
  111. Best Programming languages

    1) Being computer literate does not mean you need to start programming aged 9. 2) Small sample size. 3) Not waiting for a professor to teach you is a great skill to have, and is independent of the subject of learning. It is a character trait.
  112. Best Programming languages

    Why ideally? What evidence do you have?
  113. Best Programming languages

    It's changing for sure. One of my friends works for a big hedge fund and all the questions they asked him at interview were language agnostic (algorithms, data structures) and he chose to answer them in python and got the job. They also have people working with Haskell etc.
  114. Best Programming languages

    Python does everything matlab does, often better in many cases, and is general purpose, and has nicer syntax, and is more powerful in terms of performance and features and is free. Matlab's days are numbered.
  115. Best Programming languages

    You are missing the point. Even if you limit C++ to the python subset, it will not be as good as python for the tasks people use python for. The whole point of python is rapid development. In C++ it takes you a day to write and debug a small class. In python you can do it in 10 minutes. God...
  116. Best Programming languages

    Python is not a "new" technology anymore. It is over 10 years old. It is being embraced widely, by both software engineers and computational scientists (thanks for scipy/numpy and other excellent packages). It is clear you do not have much experience with Python, Daniel, so perhaps you ought to...
  117. Best Programming languages

    Matlab is going to die a horrible death at the hands of Python. R is so 'user-friendly' and toy-like that it will be used forever by sociology students and people in the medical profession who have no competence in programming. C++ will be around forever, but its will lose ground to Python et...
  118. Best Programming languages

    C# is a horrid language since it is tied so closely to a vendor. Look what's happening with Java.
  119. MOOCs

    I think the failure of MOOCs is fundamentally down to how people view college-level education. What is the point of a degree? It is mostly signalling these days. Not much human capital goes on. People only put up with their degree(s) because at the end of it they get a gold-ticket which they can...
  120. Best Programming languages

    I do not recommend Scheme as a first language. Maybe after 1-2 years of writing procedural code.
  121. Best Programming languages

    This is a major problem in the coding industry. People want to become experts too soon. The way you become an expert at programming is by practicing the art of programming and programming design, and pushing the boundaries of your implementations to include new things you learn over time in an...
  122. Best Programming languages

    You display a fundamental misunderstanding of how people learn. Learning new things is like erecting a scaffolding, you build your first layer and then build on top, adding more elaborate features as you go along. You first need a base. In programming, that is understanding data types...
  123. Best Programming languages

    C is a terrible first language. Admittedly better than C++, but still awful. Start with Python. Powerful yet understandable and intuitive.
  124. Best Programming languages

    Python -> Java -> C++ is a better route. But I assume the OP is somehow time constrained. If so Python -> C++ is optimal. Starting with C++ is a disaster on every level.
  125. Best Programming languages

    Start with python, then C++.
  126. Beginner needs Help

    Ken Why do you recommend Accounting as the number one thing to know above all else for a quant?
  127. The joys of living in England

    Paris is even worse than London. There are nearly half a million french in London now, having realised that London is better than anywhere in France :)
  128. The joys of living in England

    You love the UK so much that you decided to live in NL, Daniel? :)
  129. The joys of living in England

    On the contrary, London and the South East has some of the most world renowned Michelin star restaurants and cuisine. London is second-to-none as a tourist destination, living here is a bloody nightmare.
  130. The joys of living in England

    What do you mean by good time? London, Paris et al. are as beautiful as ever, it's just living in their respective host countries that sucks.
  131. The joys of living in England

    BBW - where do you live now? I detest the UK but seem to have acquired a girlfriend who won't consider living anywhere else.
  132. Physics Undergrad not sure what to do?!

    I read your post but didn't understand it, and I couldn't be bothered to read it again. My biggest tip I can give to you right now is to learn to write properly and not in a conversational style, as you currently do. If you also talk like you write, then I recommend learning how to talk, too...
  133. Physics Undergrad not sure what to do?!

    You are naive and deluded. Since you know next to nothing about finance, one can only assume that your only motivation is money, yet you've spent a whole thread denying that. If you want people to help you, you should at least be sincere. The fact of the matter is, unless you have a PhD from...
  134. Economics undergraduate student looking to become a quant.

    Let me be rudely frank: you don't have a hope in hell's chance of getting a decent job in finance unless you are a truly exceptional programmer/data analyst and have a track record to prove it.
  135. Economics undergraduate student looking to become a quant.

    If you want to work in HFT you need to be a sick programmer. Also, the university of essex is a little way off the standard most hedge funds look for.
  136. Why is C++ good for Quantitative Finance? Top 3 reasons

    I really wish people would stop perpetrating the 10,000 hours myth. The type and quality of practice is the most important thing, not the sum total of time spent practising. http://www.sportsscientists.com/2011/08/talent-training-and-performance-secrets.html
  137. Where to buy a SUIT

    Good lord, where do you work? RBS? :P
  138. Where to buy a SUIT

    It doesn't matter how you present a beige suit; it is still repulsive. Do you still wear that beige suit now you have a job? Do any of your colleagues wear a beige suit?
  139. Where to buy a SUIT

    You wore a beige suit to job interviews and still got hired? Jesus H. Christ.
  140. Where to buy a SUIT

    Charcoal or dark navy 3 button suits are the best for interviews. Avoid the brown belt/shoe combo for interviews. Stick to black belt and shoes. Shirt should always be white. Simple ties without too much patterning and too many colours (max 2 colours). Oh, and buy some decent shoes. MRoss's...
  141. Best Programming first language

    I agree with Yike. What is hard about C++? Pointers you learn in C. Objects you can learn in Python etc.
  142. Best Programming first language

    Cuch, you are obsessed with GPU's. You do realise that GPU's are the tiniest niche (though growing) of the HPC market. It's all about MPI, and to a lesser extent OpenMP. If you want good parallel code, you can wave goodbye to objects. C++ doesn't even have a proper MPI library.
  143. Euler Summation of an Infinite Sum

    Go get a book on engineering mathematics. Open the chapter on Laplace transforms. Immerse. Good bye.
  144. Best Programming first language

    You've completely missed the point. This is not FORTRAN vs C. The question is, do you think C++ is the best first language to learn? That is - introducing someone to the concepts of loops, functions, control-flow, (OOP?)?
  145. Best Programming first language

    Cuch, are you insisting that C++ is the best first programming language? If so I think you're hopelessly out of touch. You would surely have to concede that C is better than C++ for a first language (since C is a 'beginning' or non-OOP subset of C++ anyway, pretty much). And then one can give...
  146. Advice on going for a PhD at 31?

    Do not do a PhD for career progression. Find a topic you love, immerse yourself in it. The rest will figure itself out.
  147. Best Programming first language

    You have to be careful when talking about pointers in python: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1145722/simulating-pointers-in-python
  148. Best Programming first language

    A beginner might ask, what is this #include <iostream> etc.? What is int main()? What are those {} for? None of which have satisfactory answers to a beginner. The general technique is - forget about them until later. With Python you could do away with all that. I agree though that the example...
  149. Best Programming first language

    Python. The reason is you can do so many useful things which will inspire you, where as it's a long time before you can create a genuinely useful C++ program. Definitely do not start with C++. FORTRAN is a great first language but nobody uses it in finance. I'd start with Python, then move...
  150. College Freshman - What can I be doing right now?

    Get a 4.0 GPA. Everything you have to learn for your course, learn really well.
  151. Problem: switching university

    Go to Oxford. You get a DPhil. It doesn't specify what department you did it in.
  152. Which university/country to apply for phd in physics.

    Which areas of statistical mechanics? All of the profs I interviewed with in statistical mechanics were interested in analytical stuff. Very little numerics.
  153. Which university/country to apply for phd in physics.

    And why are you interested in that? Are you sure you're not just telling yourself you're interested in numerical/simulation physics to give yourself the best shot at being a quant? Hint: simulations are used to simulate something. What is the something that you are interested in? The...
  154. Which university/country to apply for phd in physics.

    What areas of physics are you interested in? Lattice qed is dead field.
  155. Cheating

    That's not my personal life philosophy by the way, it's the just the way the world works. You can have all the theories and dreams in the world but in the end empirical observation rules all. As an example outside of wall street, look at drugs in sport.
  156. Cheating

    Welcome to life.
  157. Still worth it to learn C?

    Of course the daddy for optimisation is FORTRAN. The most valuable thing you can learn in HPC is to unroll loops by hand and structure code so that it gives the compiler the best chance of optimising. Unfortunately, due to pointer aliasing in C the compiler has little chance. However, there is...
  158. Still worth it to learn C?

    If you only had to learn one language, it would be C. Absolutely do not skip learning C before C++.
  159. Buying a new Laptop

    I thank you for your life advice but fear it's not me that needs to heed it. My advice in laptop threads such as this is absolutely fine. I give my recommendation and then leave. You're the only one who has a problem with my advice, simply because your ignorant dogma goes against my...
  160. Buying a new Laptop

    I always thought osx was fully posix compliant?
  161. Buying a new Laptop

    I would, but the problem is you exhibit the horrible double of ignorance and arrogance, and arguing with you about the merits of a mac would be like arguing with a Catholic about the existence of God i.e. pointless.
  162. Buying a new Laptop

    No. And it would be utterly pointless, since Mac OS is a linux based OS. It is basically Ubuntu on steroids, and much more user friendly.
  163. Laptop Thread 2012

    Have you ever tried to install something like, say, Dreamweaver, or Photoshop, or Rosetta Stone on xubuntu? How about something that is designed for windows and has to be installed using e.g. Wine? If you enjoy spending your weekends trying to install and run software which would take <5 minutes...
  164. Buying a new Laptop

    That is some impressive achievement, dude. Aged 8 I was making simple PC games in visual basic. Aged 10 (around 1998) I started my own business building and selling computers from scratch. I also repaired and upgraded PCs for friends and family. Aged 12 I learnt HTML and Javascript and made my...
  165. Laptop Thread 2012

    All of these laptops come with windows. The other alternative is to install linux yourself. I don't recommend it. I assume most people on here want a laptop so they can write code on it. How can you program without a shell, or terminal? You can use Cygwin etc. but they are horrible. So...
  166. Buying a new Laptop

    Ignore MRoss. He understands nothing about computing or about what makes a computer good or bad.
  167. Buying a new Laptop

    Macbook pro
  168. Ubuntu vs. Linux Mint

    C++ editor? emacs/vim are the most popular text editors. You'll need to learn how to use the terminal.
  169. Ubuntu vs. Linux Mint

    If you're new to linux then get Ubuntu. After a couple of years experience, you can try something else.
  170. Should I take Statistical Principles or Honors Linear Algebra?

    I agree with bbw. Also I find introductory analytical courses in linear algebra almost pointless. Here is how you find the inverse of a 2x2 matrix. Here's the same for a 3x3 matrix. Here's the same for a 4x4 matrix. Yet, in the real world, one just uses Mathematica.
  171. PhD?

    Yeh you need a PhD. Good luck.
  172. How Wall Street Got Addicted to Light-Speed Trading

    There are different niches within HFT adelphius. There is certainly a subset of HFT who are trying to get as close to c as possible, and if there are other ways than using photons I'm sure they'll be interested in it. Of course, neutrinos are a pipe-dream at present, but who knows what the...
  173. Which Book First?

    Neftci is the one and only, especially if you're an econ undergrad.
  174. "I Can Swing My Stick and Hit a Smart Person"

    Being able to speak English doesn't mean you're good at communicating. Just look at your forum posts for a good example.
  175. Coursera Quantum Computation

    That's exactly the kind of thing a mathematician would say. There's more to physics than algebra..
  176. Coursera Quantum Computation

    Well you can't do a course in quantum computation if you don't know quantum mechanics. So do quantum mechanics first.
  177. Coursera Quantum Computation

    Why are you interested in it? I think it looks fine as long as realise quantum computation has nothing to do with computation.
  178. OS and enrolment date for C++ course

    Terminal + emacs + g++. Forget Xcode or VS2010.
  179. Do american white people get affirmative action when applying to mfe programs?

    Good lord. Where did you come from? Were you born in the south during the 50's?
  180. Python?

    There are things you can do with Python that you would be mad to do with C++. As always, to be a good programmer you need to know more than one language. To be frank, Python is the most awesome general purpose language ever built. There are so many things you can do, and you can code it quickly...
  181. Becoming a Quant: Best choice of PHD?

    You're worrying about the wrong things. Firstly, if you don't do something you enjoy, then good luck getting the motivation to do a PhD in it. Secondly, if you don't have a good supervisor, good luck again. Any theoretical PhD will be useful for quant work. It's the transferable skills that are...
  182. Becoming a Quant: Best choice of PHD?

    With your masters degree in physics, you must have an interest in a particular area? What is it? Do that.
  183. Taking Dell to court

    It's perfectly possible for your program to run 8x as fast on 8 cores. As usual, the point is that it depends on your algorithms. Processor clock speed has been pretty much constant for several years now. Clock speed means nothing anymore. It's about utilising the cores you're given, and that...
  184. Taking Dell to court

    So mross, do you have anything to show us yet? I've been on a parallel programming course for a few days and was reminded of the MHz myth which is also relevant to this discussion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth
  185. The new Retina MacBook Pro

    I really wish I could afford it, I want one so badly, but unfortunately I just bought myself a 27" iMac last October so can't really justify a new mac just yet :( Also since macs are so good I probably won't be needing a new one for at least 6 years. Oh well. I seriously envy anyone who buys one...
  186. Msc. Applicable Mathematics LSE jobs?

    The LSE program is awful. It's a horribly incoherent mix of discrete maths and probability. The UCL one is true mathematical modelling - differential equations et al. Edinburgh doesn't really have the brand name you need for the careers you're after.
  187. Msc. Applicable Mathematics LSE jobs?

    I'd go for UCL.
  188. Complex Analysis

    It's useful to know just because being a good mathematician involves being fluent in as many aspects of mathematics as possible.
  189. Taking Dell to court

    Alain just hit the nail on the head (another mac fan, I wonder why?), and explains exactly why it doesn't matter a shit if you have 1000 3Ghz processors in your laptop vs 4 2.2Ghz ones. It is all about your implementation, and algorithms. There are relatively few algorithms and codes that make...
  190. Taking Dell to court

    ?. I won't be doing anything, so no opportunity to fudge. You run your code - use a profilling tool like gprof or valgrind, and tell us what % of CPU max your code uses, both peak and sustained. Do this in serial to begin with.
  191. C++ and Eclipse

    What's the purpose of an IDE? I just use emacs and gcc.
  192. Taking Dell to court

    2.4GHz quad core is still sufficient. I'm interested to see these Monte-Carlo statistics, then we can have a real discussion.
  193. Taking Dell to court

    Here is a little task for you and anyone else who is interested. Write your monte-carlo program. Plot actual performance vs N with the theoretical maximum as a horizontal line crossing the y-axis. Post the graph here. For those who are super keen, write a parallel monte-carlo algorithm...
  194. Taking Dell to court

    Clearly Dominic is wealthy. Secondly, it seems he's getting fed up of poor customer service and poor longevity and reliability with his laptops. If this the case, a mac is a no brainer. Outstanding reliability, performance, and longevity. You have to pay for it, sure, but if you have the money...
  195. Taking Dell to court

    Why do you care about the specs? Do you use 4-processors, and all 3GHz of the clock-speed on each? Are you constantly using your 8GB of RAM? It's just such a naive way of looking at things. If you go and buy your dell, you get a load of hardware with a rubbish OS stuck on top. The concept of...
  196. Taking Dell to court

    Why am I trolling? I'm deadly serious. If you want a decent laptop, get a mac. You would have to pay me to buy another manufacturer's laptops these days. As they say, once you go mac you don't go back.
  197. Taking Dell to court

    Get a mac.
  198. Taking Dell to court

    Should have bought a mac.
  199. Course on Assembly/Machine Language

    If you don't know Assembly, how can you truly understand how programs (C, C++) use memory?
  200. In london, how difficult for a Warwick financial math PhD to find a quant job

    I just find it funny that you include it in the same list as Oxbridge, Warwick, Imperial yet exclude e.g. UCL, and a whole host of other russell group unis whose research output and student quality is much higher.
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