Description
Book SynopsisIn 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.
Trade Review"There are few "gentlemen bankers" left these days. Nor is there much room in the great financial houses for anything that smacks of the amateur spirit. That is why Emanuel Derman's memoirs are so compelling…Derman's wry humour and sense of irony are apparent throughout the book." -
Financial Times "That sense of being an intruder in outlaw territory lends an intriguing mood to Derman's My Life As a Quant, a literate and entertaining memoir." -Business Week
"engaging" --(CFO Europe, October 2005)
"Not only a delightful memoir, but one full of information, both about people and their enterprise. I never thought that I would be interested in quantitative financial analysis, but reading this book has been a fascinating education." –Jeremy Bernstein, author of Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma
"This wonderful autobiography takes place in that special time when scientists discovered Wall Street and Wall Street discovered them. It is elegantly written by a gifted observer who was a pioneering member of the new profession of financial engineering, with an evident affection both for finance as a science and for the scientists who practice it. Derman’s portrait of how the academics brought their new financial science to the world of business and forever changed it and, especially, his descriptions of the late and extraordinary genius Fischer Black who became his mentor, reveal a surprising humanity where it might be least expected. Who should read this book? Anyone with a serious interest in finance and everyone who simply wants to enjoy a good read."–Stephen Ross, Franco Modigliani Professor of Finance and Economics, Sloan School, MIT
Table of ContentsPrologue The Two Cultures 1
Chapter 1 Elective Affinities 17
Chapter 2 Dog Years 29
Chapter 3 a Sort of Life 53
Chapter 4 A Sentimental Education 65
Chapter 5 the Mandarins 77
Chapter 6 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds 85
Chapter 7 in the Penal Colony 95
Chapter 8 Stop-time 117
Chapter 9 Transformer 129
Chapter 10 Easy Travel to other Planets 143
Chapter 11 Force of Circumstance 175
Chapter 12 a Severed Head 191
Chapter 13 Civilization and Its Discontents 203
Chapter 14 Laughter in the Dark 225
Chapter 15 The Snows of Yesteryear 251
Chapter 16 the Great Pretender 265
Acknowledgments 271
About the Author 272
Index 273
