Analysis of the Quants Book
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- Date Submitted: 08/08/2011 05:50 PM
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The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It
From the desk of an inspiring MBA student, the book is about the rise and fall of an extremely talented set of mathematicians and economists that came to dominate stock markets with quantitative modeling, sophisticated computer algorithms, and computer based trading.
The book describes the type of Wall Street analyst called a “quant” as the math nerds who got straight A’s in school and applied advanced math techniques to try to discern patterns in stock prices and other investments. Patterson talks about the American success stories of driven men who were smart and hard working. How they happened to be in the right place, Wall Street, at the right time, late 1990's. I do not agree with the author's assertion that they almost destroyed Wall Street; they were an enabler of the high leverage stake that destroyed the stock market.
In the book the “Quants,” the reader is introduced to the fascinating life and biography of five (5) Quants who demonstrated their love of mathematics and probabilities into billion dollar fortunes. Patterson's book does a good job of describing the drama and events behind the August, 2007 financial melt-down in the hedge fund business and how it toppled the banking business and ended in a dozen major bank bailouts. This book does a good job of putting a story behind some real life characters of Wall Street. You can’t help but admire their drive. However, one negative observation is the author continuously jumps from one biography to another. While he did it to illustrate what each was doing during a given period of time, I found it annoying and often would forget what which quant was last doing.
The book was interesting because it took you into the secret world of hedge fund manager Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies (RenTec). Not to mention, it also profiles Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, Cliff Asness of AQR Capital, Peter...
From the desk of an inspiring MBA student, the book is about the rise and fall of an extremely talented set of mathematicians and economists that came to dominate stock markets with quantitative modeling, sophisticated computer algorithms, and computer based trading.
The book describes the type of Wall Street analyst called a “quant” as the math nerds who got straight A’s in school and applied advanced math techniques to try to discern patterns in stock prices and other investments. Patterson talks about the American success stories of driven men who were smart and hard working. How they happened to be in the right place, Wall Street, at the right time, late 1990's. I do not agree with the author's assertion that they almost destroyed Wall Street; they were an enabler of the high leverage stake that destroyed the stock market.
In the book the “Quants,” the reader is introduced to the fascinating life and biography of five (5) Quants who demonstrated their love of mathematics and probabilities into billion dollar fortunes. Patterson's book does a good job of describing the drama and events behind the August, 2007 financial melt-down in the hedge fund business and how it toppled the banking business and ended in a dozen major bank bailouts. This book does a good job of putting a story behind some real life characters of Wall Street. You can’t help but admire their drive. However, one negative observation is the author continuously jumps from one biography to another. While he did it to illustrate what each was doing during a given period of time, I found it annoying and often would forget what which quant was last doing.
The book was interesting because it took you into the secret world of hedge fund manager Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies (RenTec). Not to mention, it also profiles Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, Cliff Asness of AQR Capital, Peter...