<t>To answer the last two replies:The trading jobs offered are more quantitative, though one might not need a PhD to perform them.There are many quants who move to trading, and it seems that I'm lucky to have the opportunity to start there right away, and in fairly "hot" areas.The question is: Is th...

Just to add a little bit of detail:The quant jobs on the table are in large investment banks' fixed income groups.The trading jobs are in credit/CDO/correlation, and in CMO/mortgages, for similar large investment banks.

I'm about graduate with a PhD, and am wondering whether I should try for trading or quant positions. There are a couple of opportunities in both areas, and it's hard to decide.

But then you must ask what to use as vol...

Finite difference methods essentially solve the heat equation - when simulating x=logS. As the heat equation is the simplest equation of evolution, these methods have better properties in this case - uniform grid, stability and convergence, etc.