Consequences for starting a blog as a senior in college/incoming analyst

Starting a Blog... (Originally Posted: 05/14/2010)

In a recent thread I made a post that more or less spoke to a belief I have that may well be completely changed this summer. Its a belief that can be traced to my roots as a Science student and not a Finance/Econ student, and the 'propaganda' that is often spoken by my Math and Physics professors in regards to math, theoretical physics, and its applications to Finance.

Black magic is often the words professors associate with the use of math in valuing risk in the markets, and I can assure you that those opinions are not held by only the faculty at my University. I'm also assuming there is some old-school financiers out there who feel the same way the Math and Physics professors I'm referencing feel about adulterating their sciences with financial applications and vice-versa.

What ever side of the fence you're on is irrelevant, and though some former posts may have been misleading, I'm somewhere in between the two thoughts. I'm not the first to question the methods that millions of traders across the world use every day, and I'll hardly be the last; in fact there was a GREAT post in a similar vein in the Traders Train forum with a link to video documentary that you should all check out.

This past year I started research as an off shoot of my Computational Physics class, and will be building a Thesis and a Research Capstone on what I've completed this year in my senior year (next year). So yes, I'm only 20, and yes I have no tangible desk experience to speak of other than my up coming internship at a MM firm (In S&T).

That's part of the reason why I want to write this blog and am hoping that some of you out there will take an interest in it and provide feedback for me through the research process, namely because neither I or my professors have any background in financial markets.

The next blog will be an introduction to the research that will be forth coming, and I'm not going to have the time to blog every day. To some of you it will be something you learned freshman year of college in your Math or Physics courses, to others, it'll be new concepts that I hope will make you better traders in-so-far-as you'll be able to understand what the Quants are talking about and why they do what they do with certain models that may frustrate the hell out of you.

I'm not trying to predict the markets, and I'm not trying to proclaim myself an expert. Both sides of any argument have validity and I acknowledge that, and hope you will too. Likewise, if you have nothing constructive to say either for or against any of my posts; just ignore that this blog even exists. Though I will say I am open to all criticism.

The first two blogs I post will be about Brownian Motion (Randomness) and Chaos, again, elementary to some and foreign to others. Hopefully they will give you an understanding of my perceptions of the two and how they apply to Finance. I would love to hear back from the guys out there who do this for a living about their perceptions of the two in the models that they use every day.

Best,

• Matt