Chinese society is quite conservative about sex, or at least it has that appearance. For example, it isn't unheard of to hear of a foreigner beaten into a coma for deflowering local girls. In a country where virginity is prized and sex can almost be like a contract for marriage, that sort of thing isn't taken lightly. In the same way, if Chinese people think their women are being debased (as in porn), they tend to get very angry.
I hear you re: western fear mongers, but some of your stuff is WAY off base. In particular, prostitution is a big business in China -- lots of hair salons (especially near army bases, but anywhere busy), KTV salons (not the ones that foreigners typically go to), and Yezonghui "night clubs" have some sort of prostitution going on. There's a reason why waiters in restaurants are now called "fuwuyuan" instead of "xiaojie" -- too many connotations.
You know those large fund managers - where do you think they can get their stock from? How do you think, say, Fidelity can sell 500,000 shares of IBM to Prudential? They can't just call up Pru and say "yo, I've got 500,000 IBM to go - what will you pay", because then Pru will think "Damn, he's got a lot to sell, I'll bid really low because he has to sell it to someone". Instead, Fidelity slices up the orders over minutes, hours, days, and over time, the shares change hands.
Because it's not just Fidelity, it's 50 other funds and pension plans and moms and dads moving in and out of positions over time, the net result is tons of small trades. Some banks will buy a block of stock from one fund, and hold onto it, parcelling it out to other people over time. Other people stand in the middle and "make markets", taking the absorbing the imbalences due to bad timing (say Pru sells and Fidelity hasn't started to buy yet).
It's really complicated, and can be fascinating. This book : http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195 144708 explains things very well, if you're interested in learning and broadening your view of markets, give it a look.
We use wiki at my company, as well -- it works pretty well, but it gets a little duplicative sometimes. It'd probably be worth our effort to have somebody comb through every once in a while to make sure everything is in one place only...
(lame post)
This would be useful for normal users, and help get corporate users into the loop...
Re:More technical introduction to Quant analysis?
on
My Life as a Quant
·
· Score: 1
BTW, IANAQ.
Re:More technical introduction to Quant analysis?
on
My Life as a Quant
·
· Score: 1
I hear ya - hull makes more sense for the structurer/modeler/trader, and could be a good screener. I deal a lot with support staff that wants to understand what an option is / introduction to volatility (like people who do exchange connectivity, etc). For IT people looking to understand roughly what it's about, I think Natenberg is a good introduction.
Re:More technical introduction to Quant analysis?
on
My Life as a Quant
·
· Score: 3, Informative
For the beginner, who's just getting a handle on volatility, etc, I think Natenberg is a far better starting place (just the first 6 chapters) -- everything is explained conceptually.
After that, it makes sense to jump into the equations in Hull, etc.
Taleb is good once you get the hang of things, too...
OK, check it out - a company has earnings of 10mm/year, and 10mm shares, and 10mm in unexercised options. EPS = 1.00. Later, employees exercise, and EPS becomes 0.50. Now, granted once the employees exercise, the price is properly impacted... but beforehand, how would you know / predict? Outstanding shares don't include options (the shares come from the company's treasurey stock, I believe).
...who vote by buying or selling... If more people believe in the charts than don't, then they might have some value.
The thing about trading/asset valuation is that it isn't science (in the classical sense). How much is something worth? As much as you and others are willing to pay. Who's making these decisions? people.
Any recommendations for freebsd Jailed "virtual server providers"? I was thinking about going the linux route, but I'd prefer BSD... I'm hoping for something in the $20 range.
Thanks!
I totally agree -- I wouldn't use the IMAP client much, but it freaks me out not to have a backup of my email... (and gmail looks like it'd be hard to scrape).
Dude, that's what it's like for everything - stocks rise gradually, and crash sharply. This probablility distribution is really important in option pricing (the volatility smile partially comes from this type of movement).
Indeed, there are listed option markets, where hedge funds and banks determine the value of options all day.
If this isn't enough to help people calculate values, there are always OTC options -- they can call up a Morgan Stanley or a Goldman Sachs, CSFB, Lehman, etc, and ask for a quote on the 10 year options, or actually buy options from the bank to hedge their shareholders against the dilution effects.
Can you imagine G W Bush having to go through a weekly American equivalent of Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons? That would be entertaining!
That would be fantastic. I lived in England for some time, and I used to LOVE Prime Minister's Questions -- especially during the lead up to the war in Iraq. If Bush couldn't even testify alone or in public for the 9/11 commission, he'd just melt with President's Questions...
You might want to ask this question on the WilmottSoftware Forum. There's a decent number of quants and quantitative developers over there, and the the archives will be useful, too.
Hiya,
I took at quick look at your stuff, but I wasn't sure what you are trying to do -- what type of option simulations / backtesting are you guys trying to make possible? Are they Black-Scholes/Greek based? volatility estimation? gamma trading optimization?
Just curious...
It's easier to be non-violent / have small armies when you are sure that there is someone behind with a big stick.
Part of the reason why Japan and Europe can be relatively pacifist is the implicit security guarantee from the US.
Or at least that's why I'm starting to believe.
Considering the zero cost margin, there is no reason why the developer can't keep the cost of the software to a reasonable rate. There is also the market to consider. If you wrote a 'killer' mp3 player, exactly how many people do you think will cough up $100 when there are a number of really good $0 alternatives.
Well... this is similar to the ipod, if you add $200 to each number. The ipod, the killer mp3 player costs around $3-500, and it's the market leader, despite a bunch of "really good" $200 alternatives.
or maybe it's entirely different. Just a thought.
I don't know... because redhat, IBM, etc, are free labour for us? The place I work at pays a good deal of money to redhat for support, including bug fixing. Home developers get those patches + fixes for free.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree. You're not a user, you're a citizen. Even if you're not a citizen, you're a member of society.
Protest. Vote. Volunteer. Get involved. Do something. Society is what we make it to be. Change takes time, start now.
(no mod points, never took stats, now use it for a living)
I like the times. I want them to continue publishing. I won't miss them, because I'll pay to read it.
Chinese society is quite conservative about sex, or at least it has that appearance. For example, it isn't unheard of to hear of a foreigner beaten into a coma for deflowering local girls. In a country where virginity is prized and sex can almost be like a contract for marriage, that sort of thing isn't taken lightly. In the same way, if Chinese people think their women are being debased (as in porn), they tend to get very angry.
I hear you re: western fear mongers, but some of your stuff is WAY off base. In particular, prostitution is a big business in China -- lots of hair salons (especially near army bases, but anywhere busy), KTV salons (not the ones that foreigners typically go to), and Yezonghui "night clubs" have some sort of prostitution going on. There's a reason why waiters in restaurants are now called "fuwuyuan" instead of "xiaojie" -- too many connotations.
Hi.
5 144708 explains things very well, if you're interested in learning and broadening your view of markets, give it a look.
You know those large fund managers - where do you think they can get their stock from? How do you think, say, Fidelity can sell 500,000 shares of IBM to Prudential? They can't just call up Pru and say "yo, I've got 500,000 IBM to go - what will you pay", because then Pru will think "Damn, he's got a lot to sell, I'll bid really low because he has to sell it to someone". Instead, Fidelity slices up the orders over minutes, hours, days, and over time, the shares change hands.
Because it's not just Fidelity, it's 50 other funds and pension plans and moms and dads moving in and out of positions over time, the net result is tons of small trades. Some banks will buy a block of stock from one fund, and hold onto it, parcelling it out to other people over time. Other people stand in the middle and "make markets", taking the absorbing the imbalences due to bad timing (say Pru sells and Fidelity hasn't started to buy yet).
It's really complicated, and can be fascinating.
This book : http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/019
We use wiki at my company, as well -- it works pretty well, but it gets a little duplicative sometimes. It'd probably be worth our effort to have somebody comb through every once in a while to make sure everything is in one place only...
Enquiring minds like to know.
(lame post) This would be useful for normal users, and help get corporate users into the loop...
BTW, IANAQ.
I hear ya - hull makes more sense for the structurer/modeler/trader, and could be a good screener. I deal a lot with support staff that wants to understand what an option is / introduction to volatility (like people who do exchange connectivity, etc). For IT people looking to understand roughly what it's about, I think Natenberg is a good introduction.
For the beginner, who's just getting a handle on volatility, etc, I think Natenberg is a far better starting place (just the first 6 chapters) -- everything is explained conceptually. After that, it makes sense to jump into the equations in Hull, etc. Taleb is good once you get the hang of things, too...
OK, check it out - a company has earnings of 10mm/year, and 10mm shares, and 10mm in unexercised options. EPS = 1.00. Later, employees exercise, and EPS becomes 0.50. Now, granted once the employees exercise, the price is properly impacted... but beforehand, how would you know / predict? Outstanding shares don't include options (the shares come from the company's treasurey stock, I believe).
...who vote by buying or selling... If more people believe in the charts than don't, then they might have some value. The thing about trading/asset valuation is that it isn't science (in the classical sense). How much is something worth? As much as you and others are willing to pay. Who's making these decisions? people.
Any recommendations for freebsd Jailed "virtual server providers"? I was thinking about going the linux route, but I'd prefer BSD... I'm hoping for something in the $20 range. Thanks!
I totally agree -- I wouldn't use the IMAP client much, but it freaks me out not to have a backup of my email... (and gmail looks like it'd be hard to scrape).
Dude, that's what it's like for everything - stocks rise gradually, and crash sharply. This probablility distribution is really important in option pricing (the volatility smile partially comes from this type of movement).
If this isn't enough to help people calculate values, there are always OTC options -- they can call up a Morgan Stanley or a Goldman Sachs, CSFB, Lehman, etc, and ask for a quote on the 10 year options, or actually buy options from the bank to hedge their shareholders against the dilution effects.
That would be fantastic. I lived in England for some time, and I used to LOVE Prime Minister's Questions -- especially during the lead up to the war in Iraq. If Bush couldn't even testify alone or in public for the 9/11 commission, he'd just melt with President's Questions...
Sorry for the question overload, just curious.
You might want to ask this question on the Wilmott Software Forum. There's a decent number of quants and quantitative developers over there, and the the archives will be useful, too.
Hiya, I took at quick look at your stuff, but I wasn't sure what you are trying to do -- what type of option simulations / backtesting are you guys trying to make possible? Are they Black-Scholes/Greek based? volatility estimation? gamma trading optimization? Just curious...
It's easier to be non-violent / have small armies when you are sure that there is someone behind with a big stick. Part of the reason why Japan and Europe can be relatively pacifist is the implicit security guarantee from the US. Or at least that's why I'm starting to believe.
Good god, mate, how many hours were you working? What job? That's crazy -
I don't know... because redhat, IBM, etc, are free labour for us? The place I work at pays a good deal of money to redhat for support, including bug fixing. Home developers get those patches + fixes for free.