My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance
- ISBN13: 9780470192733
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
In My Life as a Quant, Emanuel Derman relives his exciting journey as one of the first high-energy particle physicists to migrate to Wall Street. Page by page, Derman details his adventures in this field—analyzing the incompatible personas of traders and quants, and discussing the dissimilar nature of knowledge in physics and finance. Throughout this tale, he also reflects on the appropriate way to apply the refined methods of physics to the hurly-burly world of m… More >>
One needs to consider what they want out the book before buying it. If your looking for a book with market trading tactics and think this book will provide that, then my score would be a “1″ Its not about how to make YOU money and its title implies that. In fact, its title is a quite honest answer to what is inside, the reflections of this Quant on his life in physics and finance. While he does not give the reader any CLEAR suggestions on how to make money in the market, he does give a good view of life as a professional in the hard sciences most of them would find it boring, the book would be a good for some super high school achiever that is contemplating or announced committment to a life as a PHd in hard science. He does do a good job of relating all the “posturing”, the “idea stealing”, and general BS that is the real world of both science and commerce. His descriptions of his finance modeling efforts and the difficulties does show why many big firms can go bust. But other than messing up your own trading, you have to know when a big firm had bad Quant. So, unless you can think beyond what your reading as to making money in the market and learning to make money is your goal, then pass on this book. I gave it a “3″ as it is good at exposing BS. More BS exposure type books may some day help us all. But you won’t find specific maket making money ideas in this book, thus no “5″
Rating: 3 / 5
If you want to know what a quant does, read this book.
Rating: 3 / 5
Please allow me to begin by giving insight on what I feel is the affliction affecting this man. It is quite clear that he is a failed physicist and he attempts to make amends throughout the entire reading by creating this illusion of financial brilliance cloaked behind a vale of obscurity. More precisely, he makes clear the fact that models are virtual meaningless in a world where security valuation is a very esoteric science at best. Yet, he rambles on through many chapters about his “talks”, and “successes”, in creating and presenting his financial models. At no time in this book did I ever see him create a precise goal and stick to it. He is unquestionably a dabbler who found that such a life style is not very conducive to physics, so why not try finance. I am a firm believer that anybody can achieve anything with proper motivation, desire, and most imporatantly a clear goal and a plan for its attainment. This man lacks all of these coupled with the fact that he is pompous and self-indulgent. My goal is not to dissuade anyone from reading this book but please be prepared for a what I feel is a very lack luster read.
Rating: 1 / 5
This book is not about physics and finance. It is Derman’s autobiography.
Derman seems to fancy himself as an important physicist, on the level of Feynman perhaps. Why else would he think that anyone would care about his life’s story?
The book is written in the stiff, impersonal style of a research paper. The content is not interesting.
Rating: 1 / 5
I see all the praise for E-Man’s work, and… quite frankly, I don’t get it. This is the most incredibly self-absorbed work I’ve ever read. The book is a relatively dry retelling of Dr. Derman’s career path. Along the way, he’s over-eager to impress the reader with the depth and breadth of his undestanding of the world. Nothing, apparently, is “hip” until E-Man takes the plunge and does it himself. I can’t even waste any more time writing this review. 2 stars is generous.
Rating: 2 / 5