|
The Quants: How a Small Band of Maths Wizards Took Over Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed it |  | Author: Scott Patterson
Publisher: Random House Business Books
List Price: £12.99
Buy New: £5.74
as of 30/7/2010 21:11 BST details
You Save: £7.25 (56%)
New (20) Used (4) from £5.74
Rating:  3 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 1847940587
EAN: 9781847940582
Publication Date: June 3, 2010
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | New | | • | Mint Condition | | • | Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon | | • | Guaranteed packaging | | • | No quibbles returns |
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Quants - quantitative analysts - were the maths geniuses let loose in Wall Street's candy store. This title follows them from obscurity to boom and then to bust, explaining why they were so self-confident, and how they got it so disastrously wrong.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 In desperate need of an editor June 11, 2010
Fernando Rizo (London, UK)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
"The Quants" attempts a style similar to Michael Lewis's far superior "The Big Short" but Patterson isn't up to it. He lays clichés down as thick as he can and never really finds a way of organizing his characters and their stories. The book is a big jumble, and the explanations of the various investment vehicles are often vague and self-contradictory.
Neither an enjoyable nor enlightening read.
 The what, why, and when of quants trading. June 6, 2010
Morten Pedersen (Guildford, UK)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Starting with an impressive backtrack all the way to the legendary traders who broke Las Vegas, and connecting these with their roles in the subprime destruction of the capital markets, this is one of the best books on the current crisis I've yet found.
The book then, in its final third, continues with a day-to-day account of when their mathematical equations self-destructed.
The one thing that leaves me longing after reading this book is - how. Its record here is very shallow, only establishing that scouring for arbitrage between the different asset markets (equities, options, bonds, forex), they exploit pricing inconsistencies to their advantage. And that is it. A bit more information here would have been good.
But otherwise an excellent work, well recommended.
Sadly I'm downgrading this book because it runs out of material after 100 pages June 1, 2010
Justice Peace (Aberdeen)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Amazingly I am the first person to review this book. It's also the first book I've ordered in advance. I will admit that I am only quarter way through it but so far it is fascinating.
The Quants is up to the Michael Lewis gold standard of Wall Street books. Scott Patterson tracks the mathematical geniuses (or genii) known as the Quants.
These guys have transformed Wall Street making themselves billionaires and making the markets potentially more dangerous than the infamously volatile, planet-threatening, Krakatao volcano!
I think 'The Quants' could be the book on Wall Street I have been waiting for.
UPDATE: I gave this 5 stars after I'd read the first 50 pages. It was a great start, full of information and great characters, but sadly it runs out of steam.
It had the makings of a great book but by page 100 it is referring to Lewis's Liar's Poker and basically retelling what Michael Lewis told us ten years ago.
What is the point of that?
Really this book is an article on THE QUANTS stretched out to novel size by using other people's material and retelling the credit crunch etc.
JP :)
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON EU S.à.r.l. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Telford Web Design | |
