Book description
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.
Scott Patterson worked for several years as a financial reporter at
the
Wall Street Journal
. He lives in New York.
