Advise the correct path, please!

[bigbadwolf]

Hi Andy.
it is me again,
I have just ordered books

1. Principles of Financial Engineering, Second Edition (Academic Press Advanced Finance)
Neftci
2. Frequently Asked Questions in Quantitative Finance by Paul Wilmott
3. My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance by Emanuel Derman

Be careful in the buying of books. I have the three above but I wouldn't recommend them as a priority. Frankly at this stage I wouldn't buy any books but just concentrate on general mathematics -- calculus, linear algebra, probability, differential equations. When the time comes to study quant finance, you will find the literature has been added to, with better expositions or updated editions. Otherwise you can easily spend thousands of dollars on books that you later find you don't really need and won't use.

 

[bilim]

yes, you are right! Those books are just for introduction purposes. The first thing is to give him a solid knowledge of math and programming.

 

[bigbadwolf]

yes, you are right! Those books are just for introduction purposes. The first thing is to give him a solid knowledge of math and programming.

The point is they can't serve as an introduction until he has at least a couple of years of university courses under his belt. At that time there will probably be the 9th edition of Hull (not that I recommend buying that overpriced telephone book to begin with). And there will be better and clearer books on quant programming and stochastic calculus. If you absolutely must buy a book or two now, maybe look at Paul Wilmott Introduces Quantitative Finance and/or Lyuu's Financial Engineering and Computation.

 

[bilim]

Thank you!

 

[bilim]

The point is they can't serve as an introduction until he has at least a couple of years of university courses under his belt. At that time there will probably be the 9th edition of Hull (not that I recommend buying that overpriced telephone book to begin with). And there will be better and clearer books on quant programming and stochastic calculus. If you absolutely must buy a book or two now, maybe look at Paul Wilmott Introduces Quantitative Finance and/or Lyuu's Financial Engineering and Computation.

You know what mathematics department students always asks their teachers? They always asks them why do we need this formula, where it can be applied? They want to see them used in the life, not in the math. And sometimes teachers are confused with the luck of real examples from the life. So if this books help us to see how difficult math formulas beautifully applied in finance it is good to buy them now, not after when all theory was learned and successfully forgotten.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

By the way, Mark Joshi and Daniel Duffy are both members of Quantnet. If I were to redo my process again, I would read as much books in the "General Wall Street" section as possible.
The idea is to have some solid understanding of the field, and where each person fits in the big picture. This field is not well defined where everyone agrees on what "quant" is and does.

The Complete Guide to Capital market for Quant professionals is a good book. See if your son retains interest in this field after his reading. It took me several months, hours every single day to read online forums and absorb everything I can about this field.

 

[bilim]

Thanks Andy! I have checked some books from different resources, looked at sample pages and I think it is good idea buying them right now. As I said it is a very good implementation of university math to the real life practice.

 

[bilim]

Dear Andy,
What do you think about this program?
http://www.financialcomputing.org/

 

[bilim]

Hello Andy,
How are you there?
I didn't contact to you long time ago. I hope you are doing well.
My son successfully passed all exams and now he is a student of Moscow State University. He will study there at Applied Math and Informatics Department. If you remember he wants to learn mathematical finance and as soon as he gets his bachelors degree he will try to get into one of the MFE programs in the USA. For that reason we need to collect some necessary credits on finance from one of the reputable universities. I found several courses taught at Harvard Summer School.
I would much appreciate if you could look at the web page below and give me your advise which course is best for him http://archive.summer.harvard.edu/courses/econ.jsp
I think he should take the following courses:
1. http://archive.summer.harvard.edu/courses/econ.jsp#s-10ab
2. http://archive.summer.harvard.edu/courses/econ.jsp#s-192
3. http://archive.summer.harvard.edu/courses/econ.jsp#s-1941
But I am not an expert and I need your advise.
What do you think about that?
He can only take 3 courses in 3 years in summer time, so we need to find the best ones to fit into the MFE requirements framework.
Thank you!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Hi bilim
I would suggest that your son contact the MFE programs of interest and ask them whether these courses would help. I don't remember seeing any applicant using those courses to meet the finance knowledge requirement. He can spend time making sure the math/programming requirements are met and in top notch shape.

I still find it unusual that he is not the one doing all the prep work (asking, learning about these things) but his dad is doing this for him. How would he show in his essays that he has done all the hw by himself?

 

[bilim]

Thank you very much for your advise!
He is busy with his preparations for the programming contest right now, but it was his idea about summer school program.
I had some doubt about the quality and usefulness of those courses, because I read somewhere in the internet some bad feedback from the students who attended them. So, we still have no idea about how to get background on finance to meet MFE requirements.

 

[bilim]

I still find it unusual that he is not the one doing all the prep work (asking, learning about these things) but his dad is doing this for him. How would he show in his essays that he has done all the hw by himself?

It is team work!)