My Life As A Quant

This is a special biography... a biography between the field of physics and finance. In fact, it is a book that divided equally between physics and finance since the author began his career as a physicist and came to finance relatively late in his life... As mentioned by the author: "Character and chance counted at least as much as talent. Luck, combined with the capacity to persevere played an overwhelmed role." How true for a person who transformed himself from a theoretical physicist to becomes an employee of Goldman Sacs and Salomon Brothers in his late careers..

To be honest, I do not really enjoy this book for few reasons. First of all, I have to admit that I am not familiar with physics stuff. As such, it is torturing to read through the first part of the author's memoir. Basically, the first part is mostly about the life of a physicist. There is zero finance related issue. Secondly, I am rather disappointed with the brief explanation in quantitative finance. Perhaps, my expectations were too high. I thought the author will reveal tons of quantitative finance stuff. In fact, the subtitle "Reflections on physics and finance" really confuse me in the first place. If I treat this book purely as "My Life As A Quant", then perhaps my expectations could be lower. End of the day, I think the title itself is kind of misleading too.. After all, the author becomes a quant in his late career. As such, I do not see this as a perfect memoir for a quant. In fact, it is more on the transformation rather than a real quant's adventures.

To be frank, just before the second part coming in, I almost gave up this book umpteen times. Fortunately, my perseverance helps to move myself into the second part. Yes, that is the moment when the author decided to venture into the world of investment. Ok, the second part is more entertaining. At least, I fully understand what he wanted to express, LOL. In fact, the second half of the biography is all about the blending of physics and finance. Of course, the amazing stories were full of human emotions too.

Finally, I am not discounting the author's contribution to readers around the world. From this book, readers can peep in the inner workings of a major investment bank. The quant although did not appear in the whole book, but readers can see through the process on how a quant plays his role in new products as well as investment strategies. However, I cannot deny the facts that I hate reading something that I do not understand. In fact, I do not think I will purchase any physic books for the rest of my life, LOL. Having said that, I really find it hard to rate this book highly... Ok.. since I hate first half of the book while I kind of enjoying the second half, I am going to rate this book at half of 10. Fair enough, right? LOL...