Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Quants by Scott Patterson - Available

The Quants

How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It

by Scott Patterson
Mike Chamberlain
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
With the immediacy of today’s NASDAQ close and the timeless power of a Greek tragedy, The Quants is at once a masterpiece of explanatory journalism, a gripping tale of ambition and hubris, and an ominous warning about Wall Street’s future. 
In March of 2006, four of the world’s richest men sipped champagne in an opulent New York hotel. They were preparing to compete in a poker tournament with million-dollar stakes, but those numbers meant nothing to them. They were accustomed to risking billions.  
 
On that night, these four men and their cohorts were the new kings of Wall Street.  Muller, Griffin, Asness, and Weinstein were among the best and brightest of a new breed, the quants. Over the prior twenty years, this species of math whiz—technocrats who make billions not with gut calls or fundamental analysis but with formulas and high-speed computers—had usurped the testosterone-fueled, kill-or-be-killed risk-takers who’d long been the alpha males the world’s largest casino. The quants helped create a digitized money-trading machine that could shift billions around the globe with the click of a mouse. Few realized, though, that in creating this unprecedented machine, men like Muller, Griffin, Asness and Weinstein had sowed the seeds for history’s greatest financial disaster.  
 
Drawing on unprecedented access to these four number-crunching titans, The Quants tells the inside story of what they thought and felt in the days and weeks when they helplessly watched much of their net worth vaporize—and wondered just how their mind-bending formulas and genius-level IQ’s had led them so wrong, so fast. 

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 2, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415966532
      • File size: 408413 KB
      • Duration: 14:10:51

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      They were the new Huns of Wall Street--PhDs from the nation's most prestigious schools, young geniuses in math, physics, and finance. Mike Chamberlain takes listeners on an exciting journey from their high schools and college dorm rooms to their boardrooms and yachts. His narrative power keeps listeners from empathizing too deeply with them when their house of cards comes tumbling down in the great crash. Chamberlain's voice, pacing, and timing play both sides of this story in ways the author just couldn't in the medium of print. For those who want a finer focus on the causes of the global financial collapse we're just climbing out of--or for folks who just want specific people to blame--this book provides some answers. M.C. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      THE QUANTS tries to take an outrageously complicated and controversial topic and make it simple--it's sort of a "Quantitative Trading and Financial Disaster for Dummies." Did these mathematically minded whiz kids--with their revolutionary mathematical techniques, supercomputers, and "quantitative trading"--cause the financial crisis that began in 2007? Journalist Scott Patterson tries to make the pieces fit neatly together, but his conclusions are not totally convincing. Narrator Mike Chamberlain gamely labors to give more than a dozen characters their own voices, but keeping track of the complicated text and character development is difficult. As is the case with the crisis itself, there are just too many names and stories to track. It's all so complex that it's hard to follow by ear alone, no matter how much effort Chamberlain puts into it. This isn't summer beach listening, unless you're a vacationing banker. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 1, 2010
      In a fast-moving narrative, Wall Street Journal reporter Patterson explores the coterie of mathematicians behind the Wall Street crash of 2008. The story's stars are "an unusual breed of investors" called quants, who "used brain-twisting math and super-powered computers to pluck billions in fleeting dollars out of the market." Following the first quant, Beat the Market author Ed Thorp, from his graduate school days in 1955, and introducing others like Peter Muller and Ken Griffin as they established funds at major investment firms, Patterson spins a fascinating story of riches amassed for a few and, inevitably, lost for many: a collapsing hedge fund, "imploding under the weight of toxic subprime assets," took down the system "like a massive avalanche started by a single loose boulder." Though his narrative is interesting and easy to follow, Patterson's explanations of investment terms are not for novices; a glossary would have helped. As he puts the excesses and failures of Wall Street into perspective, however, Patterson also offers evidence that Wall Street hasn't learned its lesson: as of spring 2009, "several banks reported stronger earnings numbers... in part due to clever accounting tricks... and other potentially dangerous quant gadgets being forged in the dark smithies of Wall Street."

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading
Check out what's being checked out right now