A recent post by an illustrious member of Wilmott described a harrowing story of intellectual fortitude in the face of an impossible deadline. And it got me thinking (usually a dangerous prospect, but nevertheless!): I would love to hear more stories like this. I have been amused and enlightened by tales from traders - directly from such characters as Nassim Taleb, and indirectly via books like Liar´s Poker. But as far as quant stories go... not so much really. My humble request is this: that the more senior members of Wilmott share some of their more ribald and gripping stories from their quant life. In short, to bring a more human side to what is often seen as a dry and humdrum existence (which in my experience it is most certainly not, especially when you got cross-gamma bleeding your book like some Shanghai surgeon, the desk is screaming for a fix like a midtown junkie, and you´re just not sure if you´re gonna make it through the hot, hot day).Only the names will be changed to protect the guilty.

Here's a story of baptism by fire for the rookies. I crash out of a PhD Finance program out of boredom and am working in my first industry job as a fixed income desk quant for a bank for all of about two weeks when the boss tells me that issuer X wants our help with a large 30-year strip bond deal. That's nice, I reply... any real chance of this thing coming to market I ask? The book opens in about 20 minutes, says the boss....and you're running it...

My baptism of fire was to inherit a non-calibrating BGM written in VBA from someone who had just left - no commenting, no one else knew how the model worked and I had to get it calibrating & pricing in just over 3 weeks.Background was maths bsc, with no programming nor finance knowledge. I felt sick.

QuoteOriginally posted by: odradek ...I have been amused and enlightened by tales from traders...I've got stories that you wouldn't believe if I told you.The point is: it doesn't matter. "Old traders' " stories are the same thing as all the bullshit flowing out in the wee hours at your local bar. Who cares? Move on. Have a life.

QuoteWho cares? Move on. Have a life.Yes, but I want to be a complete and excellent quant, you see.And there´s nothing - absolutely nothing - wrong with bullshit if it´sinteresting bullshit, if it´s a ring of truth and wisdom bullshit, full ofsound and fury, quantifying nothing... Hidey ho!(btw, how do you propose that someone who usually spends 11-12 hours a day in an officehave a life? For many of us, it is our life! Or if you do a PCA on it, roughly 90%!)Look, alls I´m saying is that it´s hard out there for a quant.