The Quants
  • Published: 30 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9781446493090
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352
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The Quants

The maths geniuses who brought down Wall Street

Formats & editions
EBook
30 Apr 2012
Paperback
15 Mar 2011
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The compelling story of the computer whizzkids behind the global economic meltdown.

You're a genius. Nobody plays the financial markets better than you. What could possibly go wrong?

Quants - quantitative analysts - were the maths masterminds let loose on Wall Street in the belief that their brilliant, impregnable computer programs would always beat the market. But as the catastrophic events of 2007 and 2008 showed, their seemingly failproof methods were little more than ticking timebombs.

Inspired by the 'Godfather of Quants' - maths-professor-turned-gambler Ed Thorp, who began applying skills learned at the Vegas tables to the financial markets back in the 1950s - the quants achieved extraordinary success and massive wealth. This book charts their rise from obscurity to boom and then to bust, explaining why they were so confident - and how they got it so disastrously wrong.
  • Published: 30 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9781446493090
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Scott Patterson

Scott Patterson has been a reporter for nearly two decades, mostly at The Wall Street Journal in New York City; Washington, DC; and London. Most recently, he has been focused on the negative impacts of climate change and their effect on the financial system. His 2010 New York Times bestseller The Quants was about the rise of mathematical traders and their near destruction of the financial system. His second book, Dark Pools, exposed high-frequency trading risks and was lauded by a pantheon of financial writers, including James Stewart and Michael Lewis. A winner of the Loeb Breaking News Award, Patterson has made frequent appearances in the media, including on CNBC, The Daily Show, and Fresh Air. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife and son.

Also by Scott Patterson

Dark Pools
See all

Praise for The Quants

Mr Patterson is onto a big story that already begs follow-up

New York Times

... a riveting account

Financial Times

The Quants ... radiates with hubris, high stakes and pricey toys

Business Week

[an] intriguing history of the Quants...[Patterson] explains how hedge funds combined techniques of arbitrage and hedging using complex computer-driven models (one was named Midas) to reduce the risk of making losing bets

Stephen Fay, TLS

Patterson paints a clear picture of the history and evolution of quantitative trading on Wall Street, before shifting focus to the 'crisis before the crisis' in which a number of quant funds almost collapsed in 2007...definitely worth reading for an in depth analysis of one of the points in recent financial history where things may have started to go awry

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