Hi Everyone,If you have any experience with getting H1-B, I would appreaciate your advice. Here is my question: How likely is it that the H1-B quota (normal quota+higher degree quota) fills by the 4th week of April this year?Any input/opinion is much appreciated. Thanks.

It would be more helpful if you provide explanation. Thanks.

<t>Thanks MJ. Your explanation at that thread makes sense to me. And it is very concise!! I am pasting it here for everyone's information:If you hedge correctly in a BS world then all risk is eliminated so we expect no risk compensation so we should work under a measure in which everything grows at ...

No, I am talking about the standard black scholes with the stock price (not future price, not spot price). As you know, the drift term, \mu, disappears from the equation. Intuitively explain the reason for this please. I emphasize that it should be intuitive reason.

Why is there no drift term (\mu) in the Black and Scholes formula? Not a mathematical reason but a "physical", intuitive explanation please. Thanks.

A tosses a fair coin n+1 times, and B tosses a fair coin n times. What is the probability that A gets more heads than B?

<t>I will be taking the first round interviews of CSFB for quantitative positions (PhD). Before the face-to-face interviews, they give an hour long written test on basic quantitative skills. Does anyone know what sort of subjects we should expect? Basic probability? Brain teasers? Differential equat...

I like needaclue's breakdown. I have to add one more to this (based on interview experience):5. You need to have graduate school level knowledge/experience on at least one of i. Econometrics/Statictics/Time Series Analysis, ii. C++, iii.Quantitative finance, iv. Numerical Methods, v. PDEs.

Thank you guys. Will do...

<t>I have an upcoming interview with the fixed income derivatives division of an investment bank. I am getting my ph.d. in a non-finance engineering field. I studied black-scholes and derivative pricing but didn't study bond pricing, maturity, convexity etc. Given that this is the fixed income divis...

Mutley, thank you for your reply. Please help me make sure I understand your explanation. What do you mean by delta-moves in the stock? (I do know delta-hedging, just not familiar with the term 'delta-move'). Why are we invariant to the drift of the stock?

<t>Why does the expected growth rate of a stock, \mu, dissappear from the black sholes formula? I need an explanation that goes beyond "since we are doing risk neutral valuation, expected growth rate on any stock is equal to the risk free rate." To me, this is a rather MBA type explanation. Anyone h...

Hi Twofish, Thanks for your response. When you say 'take this chance', do you mean apply to on campus interviews or headhunter route?Sorry, just trying to understand.

<t>Yes, the computers do know which computer is which.Also, I am sorry, there was a mistake in the initial wording. Here is the correction. We want to pick one computer that is either the truth telling or the lying one. We want to avoid picking the computer that sometimes tells the truth sometimes l...

<t>Thank you for the responses. As far as I understand, HH route seems to be better. One last point though; the top investment banks these days visit my school and give presentations about their PhD type openings. In these presentations, they say that they will interview us on october-november and o...