orginal post was in book forum, oops. I'm a "rookie" quant and use Minitab and Excel for most of my basic computer work. Can anybody suggest which software (Matlab, Mathematica, SAS, S-plus) is best for a quant mostly involved with equity modelling? Or are these packages "overkill" for me. I also need brushing up on my mathematical skills and wondered if software can help get back up to speed. (probabilities, permutations) or is a basic hp48g+ enough...thanks in advance.P.S. Received Wilmott mag yesterday and could'nt put it down. Bravo!

I'd offer that the software is a tool and unless it's written specifically for pedagogical purposes it probably won't really get you up to speed. Technology won't substitute for the hard work.I am familiar with Matlab and Mathematica and for both of those you'll need to be familiar with some sophisticated programming ideas, so if you have to choose between learning the programming concepts or learning the math, I'd go with the math a just sharpen up a pencil. If you are serious about Mathematica or Matlab though, now's the time to refinance the house to free up enough funds

Unless you are doing a tonne of modelling I'd go with excel. It won't cost you anything (assuming you already have it), you will have access to it whereever you go, and it will force you to understand everything you are doing (whereas other packages do a lot more for you). There is not much that you can't do in Excel/VBA (even if it is slower).

I have done some time series and risk management models under S-Plus/R. The S language is well suited for financial models, it is a object-oriented language, it has tons of mathmatical routines, and manipulates data with a vector/matrix approach. Contrary to popular belief, the learning is not very steep, plus there are tons of free S-Plus beginner's guide on the web. I suggest you download a copy of R from www.r-project.org and start playing with it.

If you do a search in the forum you will find more than enough threads discussing in great detail the characteristics of Matlab, Mathematica, C++ etc.rgds,Dimitris

well, lots of people use matlab, mathematica for the options or splus...but, what about to gauss from aptech...???it's small (not need 600mega), fast and easy too use...3 lines of codes and it can be piloted by excel...all the more as lots of code are present from the web...i've try matlab, mathematica and maple...i've never found the same comfort...