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Hi everyone, I finished CMU's MSCF program three and a half years ago. I haven't used a lot of what I learned since then and now I need to brush up on some of the mathematics/options theory. What would you recommend as a concise summary of most of the mathematics/finance involved? I'm...

I only asked because I was accepted into both. I agree that in the long run experience is what matters. But having breadth of knowledge also matters in the long run, since it allows one to develop solutions that take ideas from several different disciplines, instead only one.

Hi all, I was wondering what you believe would be better for a career in quantitative finance. My first option is to go to Columbia and get a Professional Degree (Ph.D courses but no research, would take only two years) in Operations Research with an emphasis in Financial Engineering I would...

Why not just apply to different jobs? You're taking the long route.

An argument that works with N and N+1, must work with any n, if the argument is valid. This is obvious, otherwise it wouldn't be a proof. And induction isn't recursion, induction is a hypothesis one uses in order to prove that the set of objects that satisfy a property is equal to all the...

Not true. If I told a chartist: Today's price for Apple was 10.25, and it went up by 3%. What price will Exxon Mobil be at tomorrow? They will call me insane. While your argument assumes that they would answer the question as simply as before. And I'll stop arguing with you that your argument...

I'll repeat myself again, and hope that this time you see it. Your error is in assuming that your argument works for N=2. Suppose there are 2 uncorrelated securities. By your hypothesis, there is something in the price of security #1 at time T=1, that would enable a chartist to predict the...

This is an argument by induction, and it is as obvious as it can be.

This is a proof by induction. Your contradiction depends on an induction, and the induction is flawed, hence, the argument is flawed. Read my post above, I've added a story that illustrates the error. To make my point clear: by your argument, if you have only two securities, a chartist could...

The induction hypothesis doesn't work for 2 securities, i.e, if you have one security and one price for it, by your 'proof', you could predict the probability of another security going up at time t=2. But this is clearly absurd, since they are uncorrelated. Here's a little proof that doesn't...

Yes, it is shallow, compared to the people that you'll be competing against.

Probability doesn't work like this. There's a basic, common-sense theorem, called Bayes' Theorem, which tells us that the conditional probability of an event depends on more than the probability of two events occurring together. Sort of. Let me put it in easy terms, so you can understand...

Not everything must be directly related to be useful. For instance, while abstract algebra may not give you an edge in trading, it may help you think about the world in a different way, this includes the financial markets. I'm a firm believer that if a subject enriches your mind, it makes you...

It depends on your utility function, as always. In fact, you're the one paying for those classes. I'd rather pay for something which is useful, than for something which would get me a higher GPA, but this may be because I can manage taking harder classes and keeping a high GPA.

Yes, this is what I meant. For instance, I see that you're taking several business classes, which in my opinion is a complete waste of time. If I were you, I'd either drop the business major, since you're not really studying finance except for one or two classes, and try to get some graduate...

What Connor mentioned is a good point: it may be better if you take more upper level classes on one major or another. Focus is an important thing to have, and an admissions committee would surely appreciate it. Knowing what you want and going as deep down the rabbit hole as possible is a great...

Here's my approach to check numbers, using modular arithmetic. (\frac{[x-x\, mod\,10^{2}]}{10^{2}}+x\, mod\,10^{2}=\frac{x\, mod\,10^{3}-x\, mod\,10}{10}) Basically, if x is the number, and it is written as abcd, the first term is ab, the second term is cd, and the right side is bc. If we...

This is the reason why I don't think it will be useful to spend my time learning Matlab, especially because I do know how to program quite well in C++ and C#. They are more advanced, obviously. They cover a lot more material, and a lot more distributions than in the undergrad class...

The problem is that the course is mostly guided towards applied mathematics in Matlab, not exactly C++ or any related course. Do you think that having 4 probability classes would be overkill?

All: Which do you think would help me prepare the most for a MFE? A graduate-level probability class (in this case I would have 4 probability classes overall, 2 undergraduate-level and 2 graduate-level by the time I end my degree), or complex variables? I'll be attending a Stochastic...

VBA is a scripting language, the other languages are object oriented. They are completely different. But you can always take a course in C# or C++ before applying. In a week or two you can probably learn enough of the basics to get accepted.

Thank you very much for your input Connor. May I ask what is expected in the statement of purpose? I was thinking about writing about the reasons behind my choice to leave Brazil and pursue my education here in the US, why I'm interested in quantitative finance and how I got interested in it...

Please evaluate my profile. All: Please tell me if I am competitive in applying to the following, since I've been preparing for this for a long time. Age: 23 Target Schools: NYU, NYU-Poly, Princeton, Baruch, Columbia, Fordham, Rutgers, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Berkeley, and Cornell...