This is one of my favorite speeches of all times and was given by Steve Jobs at Stanford’s 2005 graduation ceremony. His philosophy of life and business is very similar to what I also believe in. That’s why, he’s truly a rock star and huge mentor to our industry. Hopefully, one day I also have the chance to share a similar message in a similar ceremony. Enjoy!
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.
This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Positive Thoughts...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
POSITIVE THOUGHTS...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Believe in your heart that something
wonderful is about to happen.
Love your life.
Believe in your own power,
and in your own potential,
and your own innate goodness.
Wake every morning with the awe
of just being alive.
Discover each day the magnificent,
awesome beauty in the world.
Explore and embrace life
in yourself and in everyone
you see each day.
Reach within to find your own specialness.
Amaze yourself and rouse those
around you to the potential
of each new day.
Don't be afraid to admit
you're less than perfect;
this is the essence of our humanity.
Let those who love you help you;
Trust enough to be able to take.
Look with hope to the horizon of today,
for today is all we truly have.
Live this day well.
Let a little sun out as well as in.
Create your own rainbows.
Be open to all your possibilities,
and all miracles.
Always believe in miracles.
Thinking aloud helps solve problems faster: Study
Thinking aloud helps solve problems faster: Study
Having difficulty in solving a mathematical problem? Just think out loud, as scientists have claimed talking aloud helps one solve complex problems faster and more accurately.
According to the study by Spains University of Granada, people who talk out loud to think through their maths problems are able to solve them faster and have more chance of getting the right answer.
"Those students who think aloud while solving a mathematical problem can solve it faster and have more possibilities of finding the right solution that those who do not do it," said lead researcher Prof Jose Luis Villegas Castellanos of the University of the Andes, Venezuela.
"Likewise, drawing or making a pictorial representation relating to the also contributed to its solution," he said.
The research is contrary to the old-fashioned theory of studying in silence, classrooms should be full of the noise of students tackling their problems out loud, the Telegraph reported.
The study, published in the Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, focussed on university maths students trying to answer complex mathematics problems.
Those who detailed their thinking process aloud had more chance of answering the same question correctly as those who did not talk about their problem solving plan, the researchers found.
"The ability in the management of representations such as talking aloud or drawing the problems is closely related to the success in problems solution," Castellanos said.
Having difficulty in solving a mathematical problem? Just think out loud, as scientists have claimed talking aloud helps one solve complex problems faster and more accurately.
According to the study by Spains University of Granada, people who talk out loud to think through their maths problems are able to solve them faster and have more chance of getting the right answer.
"Those students who think aloud while solving a mathematical problem can solve it faster and have more possibilities of finding the right solution that those who do not do it," said lead researcher Prof Jose Luis Villegas Castellanos of the University of the Andes, Venezuela.
"Likewise, drawing or making a pictorial representation relating to the also contributed to its solution," he said.
The research is contrary to the old-fashioned theory of studying in silence, classrooms should be full of the noise of students tackling their problems out loud, the Telegraph reported.
The study, published in the Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, focussed on university maths students trying to answer complex mathematics problems.
Those who detailed their thinking process aloud had more chance of answering the same question correctly as those who did not talk about their problem solving plan, the researchers found.
"The ability in the management of representations such as talking aloud or drawing the problems is closely related to the success in problems solution," Castellanos said.
2010 set to be year of indices trading
2010 set to be year of indices trading
A fixed-income index, a volatility index and indices of commodities and weather (rainfall, temperature and moisture) will be available for trading from 2010.
An index is an indicator of market movement and a hedging tool. Currently, trading happens only in equity indices. The National Stock Exchange, which is the world's third-largest derivatives trading platform, is developing an index of fixed-income securities in a joint venture with Standard & Poor's.
Market participants say trading in a fixed income index will be successful once interest rate futures, an illiquid instrument, gains momentum. A fixed-income index reflects movement in interest rates.
"We are developing some more indices through our JV with NSE, called IISL," Deven Sharma, chairman, Crisil, said.
NSE is working on launching VIX, developed under licence from S&P. S&P developed VIX for the Chicago exchange, too.
Volatility is decided based on trading in options contracts. "Volatility is inversely related to the market. In a range-bound market, chances are that volatility will come down if the market is at the lower end of the range and a trader can short VIX once the market moves up," said Sidharth Bhamre, head (derivatives), Angel Broking. The volatility index could also be used as a hedging instrument by index traders, he added.
Trading in commodity and weather indices would be a reality once amendments to the Forwards Contract Regulations (FCR) are passed in Parliament in the coming months. If an investors/trader wants to invest in commodities, but doesn't know which commodity would go up, he could buy into an index. For example, in case of drought, agro commodity prices tend to move up and, hence, one can buy into the agri index.
"Existing commodity exchanges like MCX and NCDEX are prepared to launch trading in indices. If all go well, commodity index trading will start in the early second half of 2010," P K Singhal, deputy managing director of MCX, said.
"It will help in diversification of portfolio and offer a broader basket to hedge, using a single product. Globally, institutional participants such as banks and asset management companies hedge their risk in commodities using indices, as they can select the structure and composition of the index," he added.
A weather index is useful for various industries, apart from farmers and traders. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has several weather indices like rainfall index, temperature index and even moisture index.
Commodities and industries can hedge on such products. For example, cement sales come down if rainfall is high, so cement manufacturers can go bullish on the rainfall index (expecting more rain) and make money there, which will compensate for lower sales in cement due to slower construction.
If the monsoon turns deficient, they will lose money on the rainfall index, but will get compensated by higher cement sales, as construction work will be on fast track. Fertiliser companies take a reverse call, as their sales go up if rainfall is higher. In many cases, quantum of rainfall or temperature is important and, therefore, trading in such indices helps.
Ice cream sales can fall if temperature is low. The wheat crop benefits if winter is cooler. In case of traders, they can simply go long in such indices if they feel the monsoon will be better.
Indices also provide investment opportunities in commodities, as actual buying and selling commodities require investors to go through various formalities like tax and deliveries.
A fixed-income index, a volatility index and indices of commodities and weather (rainfall, temperature and moisture) will be available for trading from 2010.
An index is an indicator of market movement and a hedging tool. Currently, trading happens only in equity indices. The National Stock Exchange, which is the world's third-largest derivatives trading platform, is developing an index of fixed-income securities in a joint venture with Standard & Poor's.
Market participants say trading in a fixed income index will be successful once interest rate futures, an illiquid instrument, gains momentum. A fixed-income index reflects movement in interest rates.
"We are developing some more indices through our JV with NSE, called IISL," Deven Sharma, chairman, Crisil, said.
NSE is working on launching VIX, developed under licence from S&P. S&P developed VIX for the Chicago exchange, too.
Volatility is decided based on trading in options contracts. "Volatility is inversely related to the market. In a range-bound market, chances are that volatility will come down if the market is at the lower end of the range and a trader can short VIX once the market moves up," said Sidharth Bhamre, head (derivatives), Angel Broking. The volatility index could also be used as a hedging instrument by index traders, he added.
Trading in commodity and weather indices would be a reality once amendments to the Forwards Contract Regulations (FCR) are passed in Parliament in the coming months. If an investors/trader wants to invest in commodities, but doesn't know which commodity would go up, he could buy into an index. For example, in case of drought, agro commodity prices tend to move up and, hence, one can buy into the agri index.
"Existing commodity exchanges like MCX and NCDEX are prepared to launch trading in indices. If all go well, commodity index trading will start in the early second half of 2010," P K Singhal, deputy managing director of MCX, said.
"It will help in diversification of portfolio and offer a broader basket to hedge, using a single product. Globally, institutional participants such as banks and asset management companies hedge their risk in commodities using indices, as they can select the structure and composition of the index," he added.
A weather index is useful for various industries, apart from farmers and traders. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has several weather indices like rainfall index, temperature index and even moisture index.
Commodities and industries can hedge on such products. For example, cement sales come down if rainfall is high, so cement manufacturers can go bullish on the rainfall index (expecting more rain) and make money there, which will compensate for lower sales in cement due to slower construction.
If the monsoon turns deficient, they will lose money on the rainfall index, but will get compensated by higher cement sales, as construction work will be on fast track. Fertiliser companies take a reverse call, as their sales go up if rainfall is higher. In many cases, quantum of rainfall or temperature is important and, therefore, trading in such indices helps.
Ice cream sales can fall if temperature is low. The wheat crop benefits if winter is cooler. In case of traders, they can simply go long in such indices if they feel the monsoon will be better.
Indices also provide investment opportunities in commodities, as actual buying and selling commodities require investors to go through various formalities like tax and deliveries.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Java for Quant Development?
Java is an all-purpose language. Check out jQuantlib and Marketcetera to get started.
All quant code in banks is in C++ , you will have better chances of a getting a
job if you do. Why software technicians keep asking the same question and always the answering the same things.
Quant job = C++ mastered. Most quants use Python for tools development & C++ for core apps don't kid yourself. Primary focus on performance is applicable to high frequency trading and market making systems.C++ is not always the fastest, in fact its predecessor C wins almost always hands down. Even there the bottle neck is networking and messaging not computation.
C++ code tends to be harder to understand and to express a mathematical problem in. Quants will find it that functional languages such as Haskell let them think about the problem rather than about language syntax.
Not that Java is that much better in this department as it yields verbose code. Java however has a huge advantage existing libraries and of a very robust software development toolbox for unit testing, continuous integration, refactoring and build process. The last one in my particular issue with C/C++. Fighting linker errors and dealing with messy makefiles create so much noise that performance gains pale in comparison.
If anyone here has a proven "system" for working with large code base of C/C++ code including third party libraries please post.
I must be in a bad dream? Or many of you are just confused in general about how things work on Wall St. Many sophisticated quantitative and computational finance work done today by the top buy side firms who are trading proprietary capital use C++ for core systems development. C++ will usually make up a bulk of the code base at these shops. Think stat/arb desks and market making firms. I can't think of any arb desk or MM firms today who has built their core systems on Java that is actually profitable.
Many algos developed at many firms for client facing order flow like DMA, dark pools, smart order routing etc.. Are usually developed in Java, C#, .NET etc.. and many of the tools and GUi around these systems. There are many reasons for this like better interoperability between GUI and back-end systems, larger pool of lower quality developers, client facing tools usually require much more customizations and rapid changes for client needs speed usually isn't the #1 priority compared to feature set.
Many firms today employ the same people an everyone is using very similar models in the end it's all about speed.
Plain and simple C++ allows a skilled programmer to squeeze much more optomizations out of his code than he could if using Java or C#.
Rodrick what you say is correct but is biased toward electronic markets like equities, futures etc. If you venture a little bit out of there into OTC traded fixed income and fixed income derivatives speed does not matter nearly as much. Sweet dreams.
Definition (wiki): "A quantitative analyst is a person who works in finance using numerical or quantitative techniques."
There is life outside Wall St(US) ;-). Also, there is front end, back end, trading, risk management, quants working for hedge funds, for trader, for rating agencies, for insurance companies, from high frequency to macro-economics, from research to day-to-day business and so on.
I don't understand this quant == trading (front end) + C++
Besides, all the statements without facts make discussion complicated. (E.g. Java is faster than C++, ok but the actual questions is how much).
Rodrick, again, if performance is the 'Key' for making money why you don't use assembler ? why C++ ?
In reality, JAVA or C# has capable to substitute C/C++, but since on Wall St. many sophisticated quantitative and computational finance application were written by C/C++(as Rodrick mentioned as well), therefore, it isn't necessary to spend money to convert all codes into JAVA or C#. JAVA is essential designed for web-application, C# inherited lots of new feature both of C++ and JAVA have(Initially for MSFT want to give a capability for all other type code converted into) . Look into JAVA & C#, they are just similar as C/C++ but adding some more features only.
If you pay attention to today's financial application, you might be able to find out certain new financial application's baseline code is done through C#.
Answering various questions:
David, you are right to ask the % difference, and as someone who used to review programming language implementations for PC Magazine, I can tell you with some authority that you cant get a good simple number.
The problem is that it's a differential equation with boundary conditions, and subjective.
In almost all cases, Java could be faster than C++
It isn't because the people who build the compilers and JVMs don't really take performance all that seriously.
This is unintuitive I believe ?
Fact is that C++ compilers waste a lot of clock cycles because they cannot know the nature of the machine they will run on. In fact you have to tell it what processor at compilation, and subtleties down to various numbers and cores / CPU cache can only be expressed by unpleasant code.
JVMs *could* do this because they know the machine they are running on.
But they don't.
The maths comes in because we have two time terms here.
Time to develop the code and time to run it.
Most code is simply irrelevant to the execution time, so if you free up the programmer from certain tasks which consume his effort, he has time to write faster code.
That I think answers the assembler vs C++ question, I believe the CQF is the only finance course that covers x86 assembler at all, and even we don't do al that much.
But.of course I can stick bits of assembler into my C++, which is something I do very sparingly, and if you find that a headhunter is writing code that goes several times faster than yours, consider despair or more education :)
So to test Java vs C++ properly you'd have to apply a time constraint to the development teams. Also you'd need to have equivalent skill in the teams.
Although Java has some features that some feel make it easier to develop, there is a surprising lack of objective evidence.
Partly I think this is because most of Java's "easier" features can seriously get in the way when you really care about speed. When I delete an object, I want the fucker dead *now*. At the limit I want to be able to tell the compiler how to translate my code, and if necessary I want to access useful operating system features.
Another factor is of course that hardware is typically cheaper than programmer time, meaning that a few cores can do more for you than changing language.
Back when I had the chance to get input into the new version of Excel, I fumbled the case for making VBA multi threaded, sorry. The reason I cared is that VBA is the 2nd most important quant language after C++, and although Excel >= 2007 is threaded, you only have one VBA instance :(
I believe the fact that VBA is #2 supports my case rather well. One can quickly knock together some code that mostly does what you want in an acceptable time. It interfaces nicely with spreadsheets (something Java doesn't), and can talk to every data source on the planet.
But Java programmers are cheaper, hard to quantify this is precisely, since on average they are less skilled and experienced, but a three year experienced Java programmer may easily be on 1/4 that of the C++ guy.
If anything, that ratio is increasing
This alters the economics. Tasks that do not require advanced techniques or high performance can be done as well in Java / C# as in C++, but more cheaply.
This is why banks use packs of cheap Indian programmers for housekeeping IT.
I didn't mention I used to be a CIO did I ?
I mention this because there is a clear division in the advice I give here.
Firstly, if you are a CIO, using Java allows you to buy cheap, medium quality programming time overseas. It also provides a good blame sink for the inevitable screw ups.
As a CIO you have no interest whatever in providing efficient reliable systems, indeed the techniques necessary to do so will hurt your political position.
But if you are writing code, Java is your enemy.
The function (supply, demand, substitability) = bad.price
All quant code in banks is in C++ , you will have better chances of a getting a
job if you do. Why software technicians keep asking the same question and always the answering the same things.
Quant job = C++ mastered. Most quants use Python for tools development & C++ for core apps don't kid yourself. Primary focus on performance is applicable to high frequency trading and market making systems.C++ is not always the fastest, in fact its predecessor C wins almost always hands down. Even there the bottle neck is networking and messaging not computation.
C++ code tends to be harder to understand and to express a mathematical problem in. Quants will find it that functional languages such as Haskell let them think about the problem rather than about language syntax.
Not that Java is that much better in this department as it yields verbose code. Java however has a huge advantage existing libraries and of a very robust software development toolbox for unit testing, continuous integration, refactoring and build process. The last one in my particular issue with C/C++. Fighting linker errors and dealing with messy makefiles create so much noise that performance gains pale in comparison.
If anyone here has a proven "system" for working with large code base of C/C++ code including third party libraries please post.
I must be in a bad dream? Or many of you are just confused in general about how things work on Wall St. Many sophisticated quantitative and computational finance work done today by the top buy side firms who are trading proprietary capital use C++ for core systems development. C++ will usually make up a bulk of the code base at these shops. Think stat/arb desks and market making firms. I can't think of any arb desk or MM firms today who has built their core systems on Java that is actually profitable.
Many algos developed at many firms for client facing order flow like DMA, dark pools, smart order routing etc.. Are usually developed in Java, C#, .NET etc.. and many of the tools and GUi around these systems. There are many reasons for this like better interoperability between GUI and back-end systems, larger pool of lower quality developers, client facing tools usually require much more customizations and rapid changes for client needs speed usually isn't the #1 priority compared to feature set.
Many firms today employ the same people an everyone is using very similar models in the end it's all about speed.
Plain and simple C++ allows a skilled programmer to squeeze much more optomizations out of his code than he could if using Java or C#.
Rodrick what you say is correct but is biased toward electronic markets like equities, futures etc. If you venture a little bit out of there into OTC traded fixed income and fixed income derivatives speed does not matter nearly as much. Sweet dreams.
Definition (wiki): "A quantitative analyst is a person who works in finance using numerical or quantitative techniques."
There is life outside Wall St(US) ;-). Also, there is front end, back end, trading, risk management, quants working for hedge funds, for trader, for rating agencies, for insurance companies, from high frequency to macro-economics, from research to day-to-day business and so on.
I don't understand this quant == trading (front end) + C++
Besides, all the statements without facts make discussion complicated. (E.g. Java is faster than C++, ok but the actual questions is how much).
Rodrick, again, if performance is the 'Key' for making money why you don't use assembler ? why C++ ?
In reality, JAVA or C# has capable to substitute C/C++, but since on Wall St. many sophisticated quantitative and computational finance application were written by C/C++(as Rodrick mentioned as well), therefore, it isn't necessary to spend money to convert all codes into JAVA or C#. JAVA is essential designed for web-application, C# inherited lots of new feature both of C++ and JAVA have(Initially for MSFT want to give a capability for all other type code converted into) . Look into JAVA & C#, they are just similar as C/C++ but adding some more features only.
If you pay attention to today's financial application, you might be able to find out certain new financial application's baseline code is done through C#.
Answering various questions:
David, you are right to ask the % difference, and as someone who used to review programming language implementations for PC Magazine, I can tell you with some authority that you cant get a good simple number.
The problem is that it's a differential equation with boundary conditions, and subjective.
In almost all cases, Java could be faster than C++
It isn't because the people who build the compilers and JVMs don't really take performance all that seriously.
This is unintuitive I believe ?
Fact is that C++ compilers waste a lot of clock cycles because they cannot know the nature of the machine they will run on. In fact you have to tell it what processor at compilation, and subtleties down to various numbers and cores / CPU cache can only be expressed by unpleasant code.
JVMs *could* do this because they know the machine they are running on.
But they don't.
The maths comes in because we have two time terms here.
Time to develop the code and time to run it.
Most code is simply irrelevant to the execution time, so if you free up the programmer from certain tasks which consume his effort, he has time to write faster code.
That I think answers the assembler vs C++ question, I believe the CQF is the only finance course that covers x86 assembler at all, and even we don't do al that much.
But.of course I can stick bits of assembler into my C++, which is something I do very sparingly, and if you find that a headhunter is writing code that goes several times faster than yours, consider despair or more education :)
So to test Java vs C++ properly you'd have to apply a time constraint to the development teams. Also you'd need to have equivalent skill in the teams.
Although Java has some features that some feel make it easier to develop, there is a surprising lack of objective evidence.
Partly I think this is because most of Java's "easier" features can seriously get in the way when you really care about speed. When I delete an object, I want the fucker dead *now*. At the limit I want to be able to tell the compiler how to translate my code, and if necessary I want to access useful operating system features.
Another factor is of course that hardware is typically cheaper than programmer time, meaning that a few cores can do more for you than changing language.
Back when I had the chance to get input into the new version of Excel, I fumbled the case for making VBA multi threaded, sorry. The reason I cared is that VBA is the 2nd most important quant language after C++, and although Excel >= 2007 is threaded, you only have one VBA instance :(
I believe the fact that VBA is #2 supports my case rather well. One can quickly knock together some code that mostly does what you want in an acceptable time. It interfaces nicely with spreadsheets (something Java doesn't), and can talk to every data source on the planet.
But Java programmers are cheaper, hard to quantify this is precisely, since on average they are less skilled and experienced, but a three year experienced Java programmer may easily be on 1/4 that of the C++ guy.
If anything, that ratio is increasing
This alters the economics. Tasks that do not require advanced techniques or high performance can be done as well in Java / C# as in C++, but more cheaply.
This is why banks use packs of cheap Indian programmers for housekeeping IT.
I didn't mention I used to be a CIO did I ?
I mention this because there is a clear division in the advice I give here.
Firstly, if you are a CIO, using Java allows you to buy cheap, medium quality programming time overseas. It also provides a good blame sink for the inevitable screw ups.
As a CIO you have no interest whatever in providing efficient reliable systems, indeed the techniques necessary to do so will hurt your political position.
But if you are writing code, Java is your enemy.
The function (supply, demand, substitability) = bad.price
Indians are determined to pursue the CFA charter
'Indians are determined to pursue the CFA charter'
How many Indian students apply for the CFA Programme every year? Has it increased/ decreased over the past few years?
In fiscal year 2009, India ranked fourth with the number of registrations for the CFA exam rising to nearly 14,500 (including those who gave level I exams in December and level I, II and III students in June 2009). A record 5500 students are registered for the level I CFA exam to be held in Mumbai on December 6, 2009. Despite the uncertainty for Indian candidates seeking the CFA designation over the last few years, the number of registrations from India has increased steadily. This growth shows how determined Indian candidates are to pursue the CFA charter.
What are the CFA Institute's plans in India?
Currently, the CFA Institute has 108 CFA Programme partners worldwide, with 25 in the APAC Region. Once the legal situation in India is resolved, we look forward to partnering with strong Indian finance programmes. We have signed a MoU with the Securities and Exchange Board of India's National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) in June 2009 to jointly organise financial and investment educational training programs and research in India. We have already held a journalist training, exam development training, and a workshop on derivatives. We also hope that, barring legal constraint, we can establish an office in India to support our candidates and members on the ground in the future.
How do you see the role of the CFA evolving in today's dynamic world?
While the skill and knowledge base of CFA charterholders, the investment tools and applications they use, may be evolving according to the changing market needs and new financial innovations, their primary role has not and will not change. It is essentially to act at all times in the best interest of investors, placing investors' interests before their firms', and before their own.
Broadly speaking, CFA charterholders study markets, trends and stocks, and analyse them to provide insightful opinions on buying or selling companies/stocks and even make investment decisions. Sameer Bakhru, Managing Partner, Pan Venture Consultants gives us more insight. "Essentially they can work on the buy side or sell side, valuing, selling or creating investments for companies or investors," he says.
Buy side refers to a group of people who buy into investments. They include mutual funds (such as Fidelity, Franklin Templeton), which buy into listed companies and private equity funds (such as Chrys Capital, Baring) that buy into unlisted companies.
Sell side refers to companies that sell investments to other companies or individuals, or manage client accounts. These may typically be investment management companies or brokerage outfits (that sell stocks to investors) such as HDFC Securities, ICICI Securities or India Bulls.
Core finance division/ treasury departments of MNCs also hire CFAs who would manage the company's existing cash assets via short and medium-term investments in the treasury. In the M&A division, he/she would evaluate acquisition/takeover targets, and manage them during the M&A process.
One could be working as an analyst researching companies in a particular sector (say telecoms), valuing them and zeroing in on the target share price of the companies. An analyst's role revolves around valuation of the companies he targets -- the higher the expected share price viz the current price, the greater are the returns expected out of investing in that company, Bakhru adds.
Investment managers study listed companies (if they work in a mutual fund) or unlisted companies (if they work in a PE fund). They manage a certain sum of money on a regular basis and take buy and sell decisions in the stock market. Wealth managers/relationship managers guide investors on what investments to make and operate independently or work with large private banks such as Citibank or HSBC.
There are only about 400-500 CFA (USA) charterholders in India. The number looks set to rise with 5,500 students registered for the December level I exam. The qualification is being increasingly sought for its credibility, specialisation and the global recognition that comes with it, though it is tough to attain it. With the global economic downturn receding, market sentiments picking up and the financial sector set to regain its momentum, the future surely looks bright for CFAs in India.
How many Indian students apply for the CFA Programme every year? Has it increased/ decreased over the past few years?
In fiscal year 2009, India ranked fourth with the number of registrations for the CFA exam rising to nearly 14,500 (including those who gave level I exams in December and level I, II and III students in June 2009). A record 5500 students are registered for the level I CFA exam to be held in Mumbai on December 6, 2009. Despite the uncertainty for Indian candidates seeking the CFA designation over the last few years, the number of registrations from India has increased steadily. This growth shows how determined Indian candidates are to pursue the CFA charter.
What are the CFA Institute's plans in India?
Currently, the CFA Institute has 108 CFA Programme partners worldwide, with 25 in the APAC Region. Once the legal situation in India is resolved, we look forward to partnering with strong Indian finance programmes. We have signed a MoU with the Securities and Exchange Board of India's National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) in June 2009 to jointly organise financial and investment educational training programs and research in India. We have already held a journalist training, exam development training, and a workshop on derivatives. We also hope that, barring legal constraint, we can establish an office in India to support our candidates and members on the ground in the future.
How do you see the role of the CFA evolving in today's dynamic world?
While the skill and knowledge base of CFA charterholders, the investment tools and applications they use, may be evolving according to the changing market needs and new financial innovations, their primary role has not and will not change. It is essentially to act at all times in the best interest of investors, placing investors' interests before their firms', and before their own.
Broadly speaking, CFA charterholders study markets, trends and stocks, and analyse them to provide insightful opinions on buying or selling companies/stocks and even make investment decisions. Sameer Bakhru, Managing Partner, Pan Venture Consultants gives us more insight. "Essentially they can work on the buy side or sell side, valuing, selling or creating investments for companies or investors," he says.
Buy side refers to a group of people who buy into investments. They include mutual funds (such as Fidelity, Franklin Templeton), which buy into listed companies and private equity funds (such as Chrys Capital, Baring) that buy into unlisted companies.
Sell side refers to companies that sell investments to other companies or individuals, or manage client accounts. These may typically be investment management companies or brokerage outfits (that sell stocks to investors) such as HDFC Securities, ICICI Securities or India Bulls.
Core finance division/ treasury departments of MNCs also hire CFAs who would manage the company's existing cash assets via short and medium-term investments in the treasury. In the M&A division, he/she would evaluate acquisition/takeover targets, and manage them during the M&A process.
One could be working as an analyst researching companies in a particular sector (say telecoms), valuing them and zeroing in on the target share price of the companies. An analyst's role revolves around valuation of the companies he targets -- the higher the expected share price viz the current price, the greater are the returns expected out of investing in that company, Bakhru adds.
Investment managers study listed companies (if they work in a mutual fund) or unlisted companies (if they work in a PE fund). They manage a certain sum of money on a regular basis and take buy and sell decisions in the stock market. Wealth managers/relationship managers guide investors on what investments to make and operate independently or work with large private banks such as Citibank or HSBC.
There are only about 400-500 CFA (USA) charterholders in India. The number looks set to rise with 5,500 students registered for the December level I exam. The qualification is being increasingly sought for its credibility, specialisation and the global recognition that comes with it, though it is tough to attain it. With the global economic downturn receding, market sentiments picking up and the financial sector set to regain its momentum, the future surely looks bright for CFAs in India.
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