Thanks akimon! I couldn't agree more. Intuition is king in an interview! (not not mention on the job!!)My rant though was about the quality of MSc/MFE education today. There's no reason why intelligent and knowing Professors cannot deliver (fill in whatever maths/quants/physics subjects here) with the intuition (in my day anyway). Why doesn't it happen in my QF course?

Akimon, no doubt youre right but its still useful going into an interview to know what the industry standard is.Kitchenware, in general most books and lecturers concentrate heavily on the technical details and students can find this misleading.If you want to develop a deeper feel for what is going on the best reference is Taleb - Dynamic Hedging. There is also an article by Haug on this site - 'know for weapon'.

QuoteOriginally posted by: htmlballsupKitchenware, in general most books and lecturers concentrate heavily on the technical details and students can find this misleading.If you want to develop a deeper feel for what is going on the best reference is Taleb - Dynamic Hedging.Thanks Htmlballsup for the advice. Taleb's book is a fine one though somewhat outdated (no credit derivatives/risk) and contains no mathematics! My concern is not about technical complexity (otherwise I wouldn't have done a physics phd). Its about getting more out of lectures which claim to deliver only practical information and end up delivering only jargon-filled war stories from the inside of an investment bank and thowing away all the intuition and the elegant mathematical explanations. This approach may be suitable and adequate for MBAs programs but doesn't belong in a QF curriculum. End of rant.PS For intuition + technical rigour, I prefer Joshi's book.

QuoteOriginally posted by: htmlballsupThe BMG is also known as the LIBOR Market Modelhe might be interested in attending this:BGM and LIBOR Market Models: Latest Advances in Optimal Exotics Pricing QuoteDiscover the latest applications enhancing your exotics pricing methodology Course Dates: 3rd, 4th & 5th May 2006 Milan, Italy Course Trainers: Damiano Brigo, Ph.D. Head of Credit Models Banca IMI Fabio Mercurio, Ph.D. Head of Financial Models Banca IMI As the BGM and LIBOR market models continue to receive consensus in the market place for the way they capture the markets’ reality and meet practitioners’ need for a reliable and powerful pricing model consistent with market pricing practice, it becomes of paramount importance to keep abreast of the latest developments in their application and deployment.Covered in this advanced and practical course: * Master the latest developments of the pricing model for tomorrow’s trading rooms * Grasp cutting-edge calibration techniques * Add smile to LIBOR models – master volatility and displacement LIBOR models * Assess the use of LIBOR models in the presence of default * Explore cross-currency products with the use of LIBOR models * Benefit from practical examples illustrating cutting-edge applications As well as in-depth vital content: * Calibration discussion of the basic LIBOR market model in detail with an analysis of the impact of the swaptions interpolation technique and of the exogenous instantaneous correlation on the calibration outputs. * Discussion of historical estimation of the instantaneous correlation matrix and of rank reduction will be conducted and a LIBOR-model consistent swaption-volatility interpolation introduced. * The smile issue in the LIBOR market model is comprehensively discussed together with local-volatility dynamics and stochastic volatility models with a thorough treatment of the recently developed uncertain-volatility approach. ***************************************************** Agenda Day One Overview Of Interest Rate Modelling And Derivatives Pricing Frameworks The Libor And Swap Market Models Day Two The Libor And Swap Market Models Practical Workshop: Examples Of Pricing With The Libor Model Cross Currency Products With The Libor Model Adding Smile To Libor Models/1 Day Three Adding Smile To Libor Models/2 Inflation Indexed Derivatives Hints At Libor Model In Presence Of Default Participation: The course is strictly limited in attendance due to the highly interactive, seminar approach. 3 DAY TRAINING COURSE FEE @ £3295.00 (no VAT) per person

£3K+ for a course?! that's enough dough for these guys to bribe (er.. "convince" and provide entertainment to) someone to give them jobs.

More precisely, for a 3-day course.

I agree on understanding the basics and developing intuition. But I don't understand the bit about models expressing a trader's intuition. For example, the derivatives market hardly even existed before the Black-Scholes model was invented. So which trader's intuition were Black and Scholes expressing?QuoteOriginally posted by: akimoni would argue that it's more important to know the basics really well, and have good intuition, than to know certain model specifics. models are just a way to express a trader's intuition.