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by twofish
April 6th, 2015, 3:45 am
Forum: Trading Forum
Topic: End of bitcoin?
Replies: 917
Views: 199330

End of bitcoin?

<t>QuoteOriginally posted by: AlanWell, I am an outsider but I follow some things.I'm something of an insider. They have a github site with reference code. That's it.QuoteThere are also issues which I can see require such a team: a key one is discussed by Andresen hereSure, and this is a big issue i...
by twofish
April 5th, 2015, 4:48 pm
Forum: Trading Forum
Topic: End of bitcoin?
Replies: 917
Views: 199330

End of bitcoin?

<t>QuoteOriginally posted by: AlanMaybe, but my understanding is that Foundation pays the bills for the core developers.Bitcoin is a protocol there is nothing that I can see that resembles a "core development team." The reference code for bitcoin is open source, and people are free to add other thin...
by twofish
April 5th, 2015, 5:20 am
Forum: Trading Forum
Topic: End of bitcoin?
Replies: 917
Views: 199330

End of bitcoin?

<t>Also to switch the topic to quant finance. I've been adding functionality for bitcoin futures into quantlib, and it turns out that this involved a non-trivial amount of coding when it came to day count conventions. Bitcoin derivatives are settled at a particular time so I had to add in functional...
by twofish
April 5th, 2015, 5:16 am
Forum: Trading Forum
Topic: End of bitcoin?
Replies: 917
Views: 199330

End of bitcoin?

<t>QuoteOriginally posted by: Collector"Two former federal agents were charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars of virtual currency during an undercover investigation into an online drug market, bringing an age-old law enforcement problem into the Internet age."Yup, and they were buste...
by twofish
April 5th, 2015, 5:13 am
Forum: Trading Forum
Topic: End of bitcoin?
Replies: 917
Views: 199330

End of bitcoin?

No one in bitcoin takes the Bitcoin Foundation seriously. Right now they are in "academic politics" mode where everyone is fighting over things that no one on the outside cares about.
by twofish
April 5th, 2015, 4:49 am
Forum: General Forum
Topic: Large Mining Deal in Asia
Replies: 21
Views: 6676

Large Mining Deal in Asia

<t>The big risk for these sorts of things is governmental risk. Once you get involved with this, then there friends in the government become your friends, but their enemies in the government become your enemies. SOE's can be very tricky, because you can find that the person you were working with get...
by twofish
April 5th, 2015, 4:38 am
Forum: General Forum
Topic: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank - how did America get here?
Replies: 1
Views: 3528

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank - how did America get here?

<t>FATCA, AML-KYC, and SEC long arm statutes.Essentially the United States wants to impose its regulatory system on the rest of the world, and this means that if you do anything involving US dollars or go through any financial institution in which the US has a major voice, you are subject to US rule...
by twofish
April 5th, 2015, 4:29 am
Forum: Numerical Methods Forum
Topic: how to hedge a barrier option
Replies: 5
Views: 5828

how to hedge a barrier option

<t>You've rediscovered "barrier bending" which is a standard technique used by banks. What happens is that there is a value for the knock-out which is the actual amount in the contract, but all of the risk management systems work with another value which is set up to give you finite greeks. The amou...
by twofish
April 1st, 2015, 4:31 am
Forum: Careers Forum
Topic: Continuous learning
Replies: 4
Views: 5519

Continuous learning

<t>Use google and the web, and buy books. There's a lot of good stuff on the web, and if people see you reading a book on something related to finance, you aren't going to get fired. Also in NYC, you have a lot of seminars and after hours conferences, and those are good to go to.The other thing is t...
by twofish
April 1st, 2015, 4:18 am
Forum: Careers Forum
Topic: Technical details on CV when applying for quant dev positions
Replies: 5
Views: 4658

Technical details on CV when applying for quant dev positions

<t>No one cares if you've used windows. No one really cares that much about what software you've used. Putting "Microsoft Excel" on a CV when all you've done is to write spreadsheets is rather annoying.If you've programmed application software on Windows, that's moderately impressive. If you were on...
by twofish
April 1st, 2015, 4:12 am
Forum: Careers Forum
Topic: Which of these PhD is better for quant industry?
Replies: 40
Views: 10989

Which of these PhD is better for quant industry?

<t>For physics/math Ph.D.'s from US universities, the university doesn't make a difference. People from "top" universities go into academia instead of Wall Street, and finance is invariably a second choice. This means that when it comes to US universities, most people (including senior managers) com...
by twofish
March 31st, 2015, 2:24 am
Forum: Careers Forum
Topic: Scientific research to research as a financial analyst?
Replies: 5
Views: 5122

Scientific research to research as a financial analyst?

<t>Sell side financial analysts are marketing people, and in that world "research" means writing advertising brochures. The managing director comes in and says "we need to sell hammers" and your research comes up with convincing ways of selling hammers.It's not a bad job, it has to be done, but it's...
by twofish
March 31st, 2015, 2:20 am
Forum: Careers Forum
Topic: Which of these PhD is better for quant industry?
Replies: 40
Views: 10989

Which of these PhD is better for quant industry?

<t>It doesn't matter.The best Ph.D. is one that you are willing to spend a good chunk of your life obsessing over. Once you finish that, then everything else is easy.Also, I have a strong bias against programs that are too focused on financial engineering. By the time you get out, the stuff will be ...
by twofish
January 3rd, 2012, 10:44 am
Forum: Careers Forum
Topic: 2nd Tier / 3rd Tier Firms?
Replies: 8
Views: 19035

2nd Tier / 3rd Tier Firms?

<t>QuoteOriginally posted by: scorinaldi2what are some 2nd / 3rd tier hedge funds or quant funds that are still good , BUT aren't the #1 best in the universe & thus might be easier to get into?Hedge funds really don't work via a "tier system". There are several thousand hedge funds in the NYC ar...
by twofish
December 15th, 2011, 2:34 am
Forum: Careers Forum
Topic: When should a developer decline some work ?
Replies: 15
Views: 18667

When should a developer decline some work ?

<t>One other reason to be polite with corporate e-mails is that the people that are ordering you to do something may in fact be *right*. For example, I've seen systems in which there was a lack of passwords because there was some other mechanism for tracking usage (such as an IP log), and I've also ...