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Many posts about various math or science games available and I was just watching CNBC and thought about that movie Vitus. (in case you haven't see the movie, it is something that he finds intriguing for a PG guy).

There are many HG guys who end up on Wall Street and makes billions with their gift. It can be a great challenge and game. So just wondered if anyone has explored that, or had their child go in that direction? Not to do with real money, but you can do momentum studies, get into the Greeks. So you have physics, calculus. You can get into accounting, economics. Might make a pretty good unit study.

Ren

Hi Ren,

I know that it was not too uncommon for graduate students in Physics to quit school with a Masters and go to Wall Street. I had an office mate choose that path. Both areas are really about watching and deciphering patterns in data, and using that information to make predictions. There are also several companies around that hired PhDs in Physics as problems solvers. Any general company that has a technical (engineering, production, etc) or economic (supply/demand, fluctuations in quality, etc) problem may approach one of these brainstorming companies, and the physicist are supposed to be talented enough problems solvers that they can spot the problem and find a solution.

Is that what you were looking for? I haven't seen the movie Vitus. Now I'm intrigued and will have to look it up! Thanks!

Usually the physics guys are just doing trading problems. Looking at the greeks and figuring out new ways to define a product. Like our current mortgage problem. What started out at the beginning of Clinton, (where did you think he got that money for the debt?) of plain securitization of the S&L crap, got differentiated, until we have no idea who owns a mortgage of what part of that mortgage. Or how many derivatives there are off that mortgage.

Now, they look for ways to create new products off of anything. Weather, etc. So we are talking about new ways to trade the same old, same old.

That is what they use math or physics guys for. They have to figure out a new derivative, then test it in models.

But you can go back to simple 1980s option arbitrage for the average 10 year old that starts calculus.

Ren

One of my brothers has a phd in nuclear physics, but is now an m.d. partly in the hopes of making at least a little money....
I guess when it comes to the pg, a brain is a brain.