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Yes, rent has gone down and is continuing to go down. In New York but also in Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland and pretty much all "blue" cities where there's a problem with law and order. COVID-19 and law and order together, to be accurate.

The Late Cretaceous dinosaurs must have been talking about a V-shaped recovery after the meteorite hit.

And another:

Interesting article in the NY Post:

Do you have a study plan or reading plan to learn all these stuffs?

https://www.dawn.com/news/1571060/us-now-says-no-new-foreign-students-for-all-online-classes

I bought some P100 masks four months back but have never used them. I use some flimsy and disposable masks at the moment, which I'm sure are ineffectual -- but I wear them so as not to earn any public disapprobation or ostracism.

Absolutely. My question is: Why would any foreign student in his or her right mind opt for a US program? It's not even as if a job is assured at the end of the program (assuming the visa hurdle is cleared). As I've said before, the US university system is not going to go back to the pre-Covid...

I would argue there's going to be a shift away from the (so-called) "hard math" -- i.e., stochastic calculus. A few semesters of calculus, some linear algebra, some numerical analysis and PDEs -- this should be ample. Stochastic calculus will be seen as a historical aberration. But the...

A Master's in applied math or comp sci with some numerical analysis will probably stand you in better stead than many of these MFE programs (particularly the many bum programs that have mushroomed up during the last fifteen years). Probably be cheaper as well as these MFE programs are...

Interesting essay by the Archdruid: https://www.ecosophia.net/the-cosmic-doctrine-influences-which-humanity-exerts-upon-itself/

What books other than the one by Widder would you recommend for advanced calculus?

There isn't complete consensus on what topics should be included. Multivariable differentiation and integration for sure. Vector analysis (with or without differential forms) up to Stokes' theorem. In the older books there might be a single chapter for each of complex variables and ODEs. Also...

What are some advanced calculus texts people here like?

The books by Jim Rickards -- Currency Wars, The Death of Money, The Road to Ruin, Aftermath.

Aim for this: They're probably using the book by Hubbard and Hubbard but I'm not sure. I assume you already have, or will be taking the BC exam. On top of this read Courant and Robbins' What is Mathematics? Also try working through an intro analysis text -- something like Howie's Real Analysis.

Some trenchant analysis from the Saker. https://www.unz.com/tsaker/nwo-globalism-and-us-leadership-rip/

Ugo takes a critical look at preppers preparing for a Mad Max scenario: https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2020/04/collapse-where-can-we-find-safe-refuge.html

I also think so but I think this was coming anyway. Now the blame can be pinned on the virus, which serves as a convenient scapegoat.

The concern is well-founded. We're not going back to the pre-corona world. It will be a different landscape, and probably bleaker. Here's some recent analysis by Gail Tverberg: https://ourfiniteworld.com/2020/03/31/economies-wont-be-able-to-recover-after-shutdowns

This is the single best essay I know of on COVID-19. I know one of the authors (Rob Wallace). https://monthlyreview.org/2020/03/27/covid-19-and-circuits-of-capital/

I would probably wait, not merely because of what you say about their placement stats but because it's unclear what the status of financial engineering is going to be next year.

What's happening in NY (which I think is where many of the people on this forum live and study (or work): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-hospitals.html

From a game-theoretic point of view, Trump seems to be doing the right thing: https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=20100

"People from all over the world instinctively know that in the post-apocalyptic landscape that will follow the coronavirus outbreak, he who holds the toilet paper will make the rules." (Andrew Anglin)

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2020/03/15/it-was-the-virus-that-did-it

This shopping list appears to be useful: https://elemental.medium.com/what-a-healthy-pandemic-grocery-reserve-actually-looks-like-a972826006e5

India has already stopped issuing visas and I expect other countries, including the USA, to follow suit. How long this will continue isn't clear but since any vaccine is at least a year or 18 months away, I expect this to be ongoing crisis of public health. As such, mitigation measures will...

Toilet paper is becoming the new hard currency, just as cigarettes were in post-WW2 Germany. The Great Chinese Bat Flu Panic of 2020

I understand the testing kits aren't available in the USA and those available are not reliable. The federal response is a belated one, and perhaps too little too late. As I've said elsewhere, this is not the bubonic plague. But when something like that does occur -- when, not if -- the USA will...

From one of my favorite blogs: https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2020/03/01/our-second-greatest-shortcoming/

Jim Kunstler's latest bit of upbeat news. He lives in upstate New York. https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/this-aint-no-fooling-around/

To put things in perspective, this virus isn't the bubonic plague in terms of mortality rates. Also, as the chart below indicates, it affects older people disproportionately and particularly older people who have other respiratory problems or who are smokers. I'll become concerned when there...

This is an interesting essay on the interaction between the imperatives of global capitalism and the rise of deadly epidemics (and pandemics?). I'll get a hard copy of the essay to grok it in fullness. http://chuangcn.org/2020/02/social-contagion

This looks interesting: Is Wall Street Behind the Delay in Declaring the Coronavirus Outbreak a “Pandemic”?

What triggered the alarm for me was some video footage of Chris Martenson on Sunday, when he suggested N95 masks + gloves + goggles. His blog coverage continues: Coronavirus Containment Has Failed | Peak Prosperity (Caveat: much of seems to be hidden behind a paywall, which I was unaware of...

Thanks for the tip. I ordered three (myself and family) from "National Allergy."

Plus I'd guess they were sourced from China in any case so that means depleted inventories can't be replenished. Nothing like a brewing pandemic to reveal how hollowed out the real US economy is. I went out yesterday looking for masks but I was told they were sold out. I found some masks...

Does anyone know where to get hold of N95 face masks? They seem to be all sold out.

Limits and continuity distinguish analysis from algebra. Interestingly enough, real analytic and topological arguments occasionally figure in the proofs of theorems about algebra. The fundamental theorem of algebra comes to mind. Don't use Rudin's PMA if you can help it. Instead try something...

It's a fine book and I've had it for a number of years. Axler's book is a replacement for Rudin. It's not the only such replacement and there are alternatives. For example, the four books by Stein and Shakarchi, published by Princeton.

The Axler book covers all the measure theory you need. It's one of the best books I've seen on graduate analysis and measure theory.

Agree with Daniel Duffy. Difficult to summon up any enthusiasm for either of the IC programs. With US universities you have more flexibility to move around, even to change your major. For top tier, MIT and CalTech, followed (approximately and roughly) by Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Berkeley...

I did look at each one of the links you provided. They're not exactly programs and courses to salivate over. I would probably go for Edinburgh or Bristol and take pure math. Get all the real and functional analysis you can under your belt. That's what will stand you in good stead later when you...

Have you not got the "A" level grades for Oxbridge, Imperial, or UCL?

Pretty strong. The caveat is that the programs admitting you are likely to be the bum MFE programs that just want your cash and don't give a cuss that the piece of paper they award you leads nowhere. If you're talking of reputable programs (top 7 or top 10), then your chances appear slim. They...

Probably none of these will lead to a work visa unless your master's in finance is from a place like Princeton. Lots of US universities will be happy to take your money and give you a second- or third-rate degree which will lead nowhere.

Harvey's book is a fine little thing, particularly for historical perspective.

The Brand book belongs to the era of the Flintstones (probably the book Fred used when he attended Bedrock University). The Colley book is one of the best current treatments of vector calculus, particularly the final chapter, which deals with differential forms and Stokes theorem in the language...

Perhaps other elite programs have similar figures today? In other words perhaps it's a sign of the times and Haas is not culpable? Just about every MFE is a cash cow. Haas is not an anomaly in this respect. What prospective students have to figure out is whether the "expected value" of the...

My bad: the other book was not by Whittaker but by Titchmarsh (specifically Theory of Functions).

You live in Europe. I don't think you know how ossified US universities have become over the last few decades. In subjects like real analysis, complex analysis, linear algebra, and perhaps abstract algebra often the same texts and the same lectures are being employed as they were forty years...

*Shrug* -- inertia and "CYA" (which means "cover your ass"). No academic is going to get into trouble for assigning Rudin as the text. Also keep in mind that the average age of professors in the USA keeps increasing -- you're likely to be taught by some professor in his 60s, who used the text...

(Baby) Rudin has a cramped and terse style which inhibits learning. Ross, Abbott, and Bartle & Sherbert are all good books to learn from. For things like the implicit function theorem and the inverse function theorem (not covered in these books) I would use an advanced calculus book from the...

The UIUC course is using Bartle and Sherbert, which is perfectly all right. The book by Abbott is also fine. And the one by Ross. Anything except Rudin. Rudin belongs in the cemetery.

I'm not competent to say but I will add that Ken's caveat about financial institutions being name-conscious is worth bearing in mind.

Minneapolis is in the middle of nowhere and not a financial hub. The MFM program was set up to generate a bit of cash for the math department, regardless of the fact that it had no resident expertise in financial engineering. The people teaching the program are either math professors who have...

Neither of these two is a great program. You're asking us to choose which one has less fleas.

A piece of satire. http://www.unz.com/freed/china-overrated-by-right-wing-kooks/

Yes. Have more than one book at hand. Apostol's books seem to be still available, albeit published in India (which means low-grade ink and paper). Still, each of the two volumes is under $20. Also get the Schaum Series "Beginning Calculus." You already have Lang. I also like Banner's "The...

Don't get me started on this -- I start frothing at the mouth. He's supposedly been "working" in it for years. It just never gets completed. He does everything except finish the book -- he works on the TV series, he goes to SF conferences, and he's just finished another book, "Fire and Blood."

I will watch it. But I'm really waiting for volume 6 of the book. I'm also waiting for the new season of Babylon Berlin, perhaps the greatest television show ever made:

Don't know your level -- are you approaching calc for the first time or want a quick revision? Lang's book is fine. I also like "Beginning Calculus" published by Schaum's (assuming you're learning it for the first time). Apostol's two volumes on calculus (not his analysis book) are also good...

Okay, I'll order my copy.

Yes, of course. My son, who works at Wells Fargo, was asking about it and I recommended he buy it. I may buy a copy myself but it would be nice to know something about it.

Is this based on the QN course DD offers? Is it a major improvement on the first edition (which I have)?

I lived in Essex for a number of years, though of course that's not germane. We discussed the Essex program here on this forum a number of years back, based on their website. It wasn't professionally done. The consensus seemed to have been that with a site like that the program itself couldn't...

That is one superbly written book, dripping with insight.

Lichtenstein. Essex is a joke of a university. And the London programs are also nothing great.

Is Liechtenstein expensive? It's a centre for finance like Switzerland -- secret numbered accounts.

If you already have a DSA background you may not learn much from these books but I think they're worth reading for those who don't or are a bit rusty: Bhargava's Grokking Algorithms, and Roughgarden's Algorithms Illuminated: Part 1 (with three more in the pipeline).

There is an equivalent way of introducing real numbers and that is Cauchy sequences. This does have practical value, but the applications -- other than proofs of various convergence tests -- can be found only in classical texts or modern texts with "classical analysis" in the title. These...

The Apostol book on calculus is still a calculus book. There seems to be a spectrum running from plug-and-chug calculus to real analysis. Apostol's calc book is still on the plug-and-chug side except with some proofs and some structure. Apostol's "Mathematical Analysis" is oriented more towards...

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/05/14/1526270400000/Stop-getting-The-Flintstones-wrong/

The probably won't. It's not that they don't know all this but these things cannot be discussed or admitted by them out in the open. They've got to keep the show running, and that depends on eliding over harsh employment realities and singing their siren song of hope.

It's not so much what a quant specifically uses so much as the way he approaches the world (through the prism of PDEs, stoch calculus, linear programming, optimization, and a slew of other math tools that can be called upon at will), a concomitant (yet elusive to define) "mathematical maturity"...

Are members of this team typically math/physics/engineering Ph.D.s?

What they're selling is the brand name of their institutions. But in so doing they're arguably debasing that brand name. These degrees are cash cows for these British universities and truth to tell, in this era of reduced state funding, they need the money. There's a bigger problem lurking in...

The irresistible Dmitry Orlov: ClubOrlov: The US pulled out of Iran Nuclear Deal because it’s too broke

Keep in mind that the degrees offered by Imperial, KCL, etc. are largely a joke. Brief mention of the Black-Scholes PDE and C++ offered only as an option (if at all). That is to say, you can earn a quant degree from these august institutions of learning without an in-depth knowledge of PDEs and C++.

I would argue yes. But you evidently don't like studying math (or that would be your background). And covering the ground from scratch when you may possibly have no aptitude for it and no enduring interest in it may be a bit of a problem. Recognition and credibility are among the mercenary...

It's bollocks. There may be one course in any of these programs that actually presupposes knowing something about differential equations. Likewise for basic probability theory. The tough criteria are just to add to the mystique of the quant degree. In my opinion you're probably wasting your time...

Quite an interesting article. Why we should bulldoze the business school

Written by a friend of mine. Looks like biologists also use this machinery. Ebola in the Hog Sector: Modeling Pandemic Emergence in Commodity Livestock

Close to zilch. No math.

Worthless clickbait. Not that it's not true but that it's pretty obvious.

This kind of debilitating anxiety is counter-productive. Just shrug your shoulders stoically and concentrate on getting through the last exams. Then take it from there.

Why "torn between"?

Going by what's on their website, I don't think so. The courses seem to be basic stats and basic stochastic. I don't see any heavy coding, nor any advanced courses. I don't think it will be any good for that either. Judging by what's given on the site, it doesn't seem to be much of a program...

"Worth the investment" in what sense? You are apparently not looking for a job subsequent to your MFE so what criteria are you using?

Go for the job and write a letter to the program that because of circumstances you can't take up the offer at the moment but might re-apply after a couple of years. If it is a ranking program, the program admins will readily find someone else to replace you.

They are cash cows for the departments and universities offering them. The MFE has become a commodity like any other. Don't fall for the "elite" hogwash.

This won't happen in England (or at least it didn't in my time). One or more members of the faculty might call you over for an amiable chat just to assess your language proficiency. But in the US, everything has to be bureaucratised and standardised. Just memorizing long lists of words without...

Agree with the rest of your post so snipped it out. The fluency required for day-to-day life in North America is a very low bar indeed, as this teacher of English demonstrates: The words tested on the GRE verbal are not used in common parlance and I suspect even members of Trump's cabinet may...

It may not be a waste -- they might teach you material you don't already know. At least it's not as hideously expensive as US programs. Whether it leads to a job, and what kind of job, is something I don't know about.

*Shrug* -- without knowing more it looks like just another "me-too" program offering a set of generic introductory courses. The following claim should be taken with a pinch of salt: The one redeeming feature of this program is its relatively low cost -- 6,500 pounds.

A recipe for disaster. Better to cover a little but to understand it clearly. Breadth over depth means zilch, means the illusion of knowledge, means knowing only the buzzwords. Modern university education ....

You must endeavor to persevere.

These are design features of Java, not defects. Also, multiple inheritance is a headache and using interfaces a step forward.

The quality of posts on this forum these days ....

You mean 1953.

I'm not a fan of Rudin. There are other texts that cover the same material with the same sophistication, but in a more friendly fashion.

Which can be found here: http://mfe.berkeley.edu/download/preprogram_math_syllabus.pdf Since the instructor says Rudin is the text going to be used most extensively, I suppose you should buy it and start reading it. Not sure it can be done with only a couple of semesters of math under your...

The City of London is probably a much bigger part of the UK economy than Wall Street is of the US economy but I wouldn't know how to test this guess. Britain and the US both have outsized financial sectors, which are essentially parasitic on their national economies and arguably parasitic on the...

The short answer to your last question is probably "no." The long answer is a trifle more problematic and has to be argued more carefully. The US is the hub for global finance and will probably remain so for as long as the dollar remains the global reserve. But it's not clear how long this will...

Each time I hear "shortage of IT professionals", I reach for my revolver. It's usually employed as a feeble excuse by US multinationals, working in tandem with Indian consultancies, to up the H1B quota.

They succeeded with chess. But to be honest, both games are clearly structured with clear and unambiguous rules. I doubt they will have much or any success with unstructured situations. The hype and overblown expectations for "AI" have always there, over the decades. My own two cents is that...

*Shrug* -- probably from Alpha Go and AlphaZero.

More pertinently, it will have an impact on those MFE students looking for subsequent employment and Green Card status in the USA.

The invisible wall: how Trump is slowing immigration without laying a brick

AI has become another stale buzzword. You have to get into the details. The more an area of activity can be structured according to a set of rules, the more it's amenable to being taken over by computer-driven algorithms -- hardly a deep insight. This particularly holds for games like chess and...

Seems to be another hastily cobbled together "me-too" program of generic and junk courses, some of which seem to have no relationship to quant work at all. And the requirements to enter the "program" are rock bottom -- i.e., this is quite obviously meant to be another cash cow for the school.

As one example, the Wells Fargo people have assembled a new team including a stats professor from Michigan. The team is working on reinforcement learning and the objective is to make many/most of the Wells Fargo quants redundant. This dynamic is inexorable. For whether a human can be superior to...

I may get some flak for this but probably the best MFE students are those whose formal background is way stronger than what is required by the program. In other words, those attempting to complete what they feel or know to be formal prerequisites are already at a disadvantage. Your econ courses...

If it's a mid/low tier MFE, what will you do once you graduate? And since every MFE I know is a cash cow for the department/university, you probably won't get funding.

For US math departments Steven Krantz claims 50-80% of grad students drop out. For MIT it will probably be closer to the higher figure.

Jack Rasmus:

Jim Kunstler's take on bitcoin:

"A diamond is forever" was the De Beers 1947 advertising slogan. I doubt bitcoin is forever.

Maybe. I suspect it will be a bit of a roller-coaster ride. Meanwhile, Dmitry's take on it: ClubOrlov: Cryptomania!

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.01815.pdf

Bye-bye, Minimax and Alpha Beta pruning and hello, reinforcement learning. Google's AlphaZero Destroys Stockfish In 100-Game Match - Chess.com

Interesting portrait of Lev Alburt, who apparently teaches a lot of finance people. Article is 3 months old. Wall Street’s Best-Kept Secret Is a 72-Year-Old Russian Chess Expert

Interesting discussion on bitcoin, hosted by Peter Lavelle at RT.

If one wants to learn "coding", there aren't that many books around. There are lots of books on the syntax of any language -- C, C++, Python, Ruby, etc. But few book on interesting and engaging coding problems with detailed solutions. Books on coding interviews are one source and there are a...

Not "great wealth" except for a select few but a comfortable life for unionized blue-collar workers, mostly white. The rest of the workforce also benefited, but to a lesser extent. A single paycheck was enough to maintain a family, buy a small house, buy and operate a car. Those jobs have either...

The GOP Tax Plan Will Destroy Graduate Education

This whole NYT story rings false for me. Only the best of the best get into companies like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon -- not the ordinary comp sci or math graduate. It's true that the majority of grad students in STEM are foreign but it's not because of the "booming job market"...

Nope, not worth it to try to get a score a point or two higher. Probably won't make a difference to your chances of admission. And the vagaries of the test are such that you could end up getting a lower score.

Tijm's book is a first-rate introduction to probability. Ross isn't.

How different is this from the 3rd edition of your earlier book, "Understanding Probability"?

Never saw the film. Personally what I've seen is teachers and lecturers of indifferent quality, essentially time-servers, and just going through the motions. Even if they know anything, they're careful to not pass it on.

The posters seem to fade away once they realize what's really involved. PDEs, real analysis, measure theory, numerical methods, stochastic theory all take time to pick up. In addition, without the right books and right teachers one can end up wasting a lot of time.

Get a fair number of such posts on this forum. First question is that if your math isn't that great, why do you want to do the MScMCF in the first place? Clearly your interests and aptitudes lie elsewhere. Is it merely mercenary motives? No single course. And doing math involves a way of...

Other than the glut of MFEs, there are other emerging factors. One of these is (probably) another imminent financial/economic crisis for the USA. None of the deep systemic problems of 2008 have really been resolved and the USA has been living on borrowed time. Finance has been the only sector...

One review of the film (there are others): Blade Runner 2049 review – a gigantic spectacle of pure hallucinatory craziness

You do need to watch the first, preferably the director's cut or final cut.

Seems to have been mainly non-measure theoretic probability, with something on random processes towards the end (probably something like the Poisson process). In quant finance, it will be more measure-theoretic, which sounds more intimidating than it really is. There's the old adage about eating...

Yes to the first question -- it's knowledge of hard math and hard coding that's key. The MBA appeals more to second-rate minds who want to be "leaders." If you say you're interested in math, you'll likely be frustrated as an MBA corporate type. But also, even if you get a quant degree from one...

This is quite some sequel. It should be watched on a big screen (and the bigger the better). Dystopian sci-fi at its best and probably better than the first one.

Shreve gives enough measure theory. He doesn't construct a non-Borel set but does mention they can be created. He covers enough for measure-theoretic probability to be developed. That's all you need.

There's a new book out (roughly) titled, "Programming Interviews in Python." That should do the trick.

"Communication skills" is an ambiguous term. It can mean lack of fluency in idiomatic English (commonplace with foreign students); it can mean lack of ease in social situations (frequent with math and physics students, who are autistic in disproportionate numbers); it can mean an incapacity or...

Got to fill up the syllabus with something. This is being force-fed to students who don't know what is important, what isn't.

Documentation has gone down the toilet. Seemingly no-one hires technical writers any more. The documentation available -- typically online -- is almost invariably abysmal.

Not sure about that. If you look at advances in areas like reinforcement learning, you might change your mind.

NC, hands down. ML is chic at the moment but NC is of proven worth and you'll also learn a fair bit about scientific coding.

No salary details either -- oh, wait, there's no salary on offer. Silly me. Nor any mention about the amount of passion needed.

No "best way." You have to go through the grind. No shortcuts exist.

The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver. I read a review of the book in the Air France in-house magazine while flying from Minneapolis to Paris a couple of weeks back, and then I saw a copy of the book at Cologne's main train station yesterday afternoon and picked it up. A right riveting read and a fair...

A very basic course. Nothing exciting in it.

Error-correcting codes, ideas of compression, transmission, and entropy. Development of the work of Shannon, Hamming, and Huffman. Comes in handy in part of "data science."

DD will say that C++11 is a completely different beast to C, and he will be right. But for your purposes, think of C++ as C with classes. That's how it started. So C, and then learn how to use classes. Then the things in C++11. The "extreme knowledge" part always troubles me. No context...

From your first post: You don't know what you're going on about and asking frivolous questions.

By itself, not of much use. Instead pick up a copy of Titus Beu's "Introduction to Numerical Programming." Amazon is selling it for $72, which is a steal. Work through it diligently. And keep a copy of Lippman (or something roughly equivalent) by your side for reference.

These generic C++ books are of limited use since they don't lead one to interesting examples and case studies.

Deitel's book (and probably Savitch's book as well) should be titled, "C++ for dullards."

It's often easier to get a high GPA from a leading school (MIT, Caltech) than from a no-name school. But it's true that a low GPA from a no-name school scuppers one's chances.

4 (mathematical analysis) is at a different level of difficulty if baby Rudin is the prescribed text. It is real math whereas the others are math for liberal arts/comp sci students. You should have a good command of calculus before you approach Rudin.

So are people holding master's degrees in financial mathematics, as a general rule. There isn't enough time to do things rigorously and completely. So corners get cut.

Shouldn't be a problem, particularly with a Ph.D. from a known school (MIT, Princeton, Stanford, CalTech, etc.). Do you hold a British/EU passport? In my opinion the best US programs are stronger than the best British programs. Ceteris paribus (i.e., ignoring the differences in fees, visa...

Study shows and measures effects of cognitive-enhancing drugs on chess play

It's a losing battle: time wins. But it's a battle that has to be fought. Brain cells die and synapses are lost. In the areas where high-level mental performance is tested (like chess) the loss of mental acuity and mental stamina can be charted.

I think the idea is to find what is lucrative and then (somehow) develop a "passion" for it. In other words, delude others (and probably oneself) that one has an enthusiasm for it.

Difficult to know what it's going to be like in the near and medium term. I've heard that Google employees with H1Bs and Green Cards have recently been barred from entry to the US. Any other anecdotal accounts or points of view?

If you moonlight as a street busker and are not too fussy about where you put your sleeping bag it can be done. And beans on toast can be very sustaining.

They're just doubling the time a full-time Ph.D. is supposed to take in England (3 years). The 3-year Ph.D. is probably more the exception than the rule, with the degree often taking four or five years. It depends on the prior preparation of the student, the quality of the research advisor, and...

Community college won't help -- the quality of fellow students is poor, the teachers are mediocre at best, the curriculum tends to be watered down (because the students lack key skills in arithmetic and algebra). Difficult to suggest anything. The math skills have to be hard-wired, which...

Maybe they should be called "post-graduate diplomas" or something like that instead of "M.Sc."

Don't know about now but a quarter of a century back any number of English universities had one-year M.Sc. computing programs designed for non-computing graduates. These degrees were meant to transition people into I.T. Imperial, for example, had an intensive one-year "Foundations of Information...

I agree with your numbers.

I think you should be okay. The comment of IntoDarkness above is correct. And the 170V has to count for something --some of quant work is about moving back and forth between math and ordinary language.

No, and furthermore economics will completely addle your brain.

Book isn't useless. And for the price of $23 makes it an attractive purchase for someone who wants a quick and ready overview of quant finance.

The Q score matters and the V score not so much after a certain threshold. Your V score, incidentally, is phenomenal. You are right that your V score may suffer -- some of the questions seem to admit more than one correct answer (among the choices presented) and choosing which one is supposed to...

Latin was the language employed by the educated European elite. And perhaps French was the lingua franca of the European aristocracy. After good King William invaded England in 1066, French was the court language for two centuries, with English only being spoken by thralls and villeins.

Think it's paraphrasing what was said about the Lowells and the Cabots: "And this is good old Boston, The home of the bean and the cod. Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots, And the Cabots talk only to God."

Agreed but that is a different book to Shreve's "Stochastic Calculus for Finance." Sheldon Ross is a mediocre writer who produces mediocre and dull books.

And some do -- and bully for them. But even in their case, they're often being worked to the bone. The "intellectual satisfaction" part is incidental and serendipitous if it is there.

Au contraire, I'm doing no such thing. And you give the answer I would have in the rest of your post: there are few or no alternatives. That's why Ph.D.s have gravitated towards finance. My gripe is with the general nature of work these days -- not quant finance in particular. Quant finance is...

On balance, QF. But saying this is next to useless. Look at the actual courses offered when you're making a comparison, regardless of whether a program is described as QF or FM. See also which department is offering it, and which profs will do the teaching.

On balance, QF. But saying this is next to useless. Look at the actual courses offered when you're making a comparison, regardless of whether a program is described as QF or FM.

100 minutes obviously. Or maybe 5 minutes.

Unless you're Serre or Deligne. One of the things that used to irritate von Neumann about himself was that the truly seminal ideas didn't originate with him. But he was capable of taking those ideas and developing them very rapidly. This seems to have been the case with quantum mechanics, game...

For some reason I don't care for Popper. My favorite philosopher of science is Feyerabend. For math I like Lakatos ("Proofs and Refutations") and Hadamard ("On the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field"). And maybe some Gardner ("Aha! Insight").

That was the tail end of the golden age, which started from roughly 1945 and started to peter out in the mid 70s -- what the French call Les Trente Glorieuses. Opportunities are far more circumscribed today.

Ah, you're looking for the holy grail. There is no such approach or method. A genuine problem requires something new by way of perception and insight. Otherwise it wouldn't be a problem but just a variant of something already solved previously.

This is probably not the kind of response you are looking for but it still needs to be said: PhDs and MFEs serve as high-IQ fodder to the voracious maw of finance. Applied brain power, like every other kind of labor, has been thoroughly commoditised in late capitalism. Forget about the aesthetic...

You do know that "How to Solve It" is an abridged version of M & PR? There is nothing wrong with Polya but there seem to be better books in the market today -- Engel being one of them.

Polya is passé -- he was a contemporary of Fred Flintstone. If you must read Polya, go for his 2-volume "Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning." Try Engel's "Problem-Solving Strategies."

Take along something you'll enjoy. Maybe Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire."

Go for it. Just don't apply to the exorbitantly priced US programs, many of whose degrees are not worth the paper they're printed on. Also, it's not clear how long the global financial structure will remain standing and to me at least it looks decidedly wobbly.

I've been saying for years that there's a heavy bias in the international rankings towards British and US universities. For affordability and sound education try Scandinavia, Germany, France, ....

There is a glut of graduates from second- and third-tier schools. It's not necessarily something they went into with their eyes (completely) closed: maybe they couldn't get into a top-tier school and half-believed the siren song of the crud programs, promising a world of opportunity after they...

I'm not "worried" about it as I don't have any skin in the game. But it's also not what I'm saying. The corporates are making profits. There's just no incentive to expand production. New investment in factories will not yield a profitable return. First of all, the demand isn't there. Secondly...

Yours is a fundamentally different way of seeing the world to mine. Why is there investment in financial assets but not, say, in manufacturing? Why do the big corporates prefer to sit on their cash hoards rather than put it to productive use? Why the lack of borrowing for real investment? What...

Agreed. Though obviously this holds a fortiori for the lower ranked programs. Also, one has to question how much and to what depth the subject material can be taught in the space of a year -- perforce it has to be superficial and a rush job. But for universities to mention this would be the...

The ZIRP for several years, and then the 0.25% interest rate after that. Plus little or no capital investment though large companies are flush with funds. There's nowhere profitable to invest -- which makes a joke of the so-called recovery. Record low labor participation rate, which makes a joke...

I agree. The problems that 2008 laid bare were but adroitly brushed under the rug. The US economy -- and much of the global economy as well -- has been on life support, a dead man walking. The problems remain festering and perhaps can't be solved. The metaphor I use is of a dead old whore, in...

Could anyone in 2006 have forecast even the rough contours of 2016 today? I couldn't. We've no idea what 2026 will look like a propos quant finance. My best guess is that for a number of reasons it will implode into a rubble of electronic bits and bytes. It is one aspect of a particular world --...