---------- | From: Timothy C. May <netmail!tcmay@netcom.com> | To: John E. Kreznar <jkreznar@ininx.com> | Cc: <cypherpunks@toad.com> | Subject: Re: Quants vs Congress | Date: Wednesday, April 13, 1994 8:13PM | | Received: from relay2.UU.NET by netmail.microsoft.com with SMTP (5.65/25-eef) | id AA14155; Wed, 13 Apr 94 19:20:40 -0700 | Received: from toad.com by relay2.UU.NET with SMTP | (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AAwlnp10043; Wed, 13 Apr 94 23:21:22 -0400 | Received: by toad.com id AA17257; Wed, 13 Apr 94 20:13:54 PDT | Received: from mail.netcom.com (netcom5.netcom.com) by | toad.com id AA17248; Wed, 13 Apr 94 20:13:47 PDT | Received: from localhost by mail.netcom.com (8.6.4/SMI-4.1/Netcom) | id UAA15518; Wed, 13 Apr 1994 20:13:38 -0700 | Message-Id: <199404140313.UAA15518@mail.netcom.com> | In-Reply-To: <9404140219.AA09878@ininx> from "John E. Kreznar" | at Apr 13, 94 07:19:36 pm | X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] | Mime-Version: 1.0 | Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII | Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit | Content-Length: 1913 | Sender: netmail!owner-cypherpunks@toad.com | Precedence: bulk | | John Krexnar writes: | | (Duncan Frissell's section elided) | | > Aw c'mon Duncan. Derivative of what? What's a quant? Where was the | > term ``intermediation of political risk'' used? | > | > I love your postings when I can make sense of them. This one is so well | > encrypted I can't. | | "Derivatives" mean secondary financial instruments, based on ("derived | from") things like stocks, bonds, and real estate. Things like futures | markets, "baskets" of other instruments, etc. These started, it may be | argued, in the trading pits of Chicago, but have now spread around the | world. I think I recall reading (in "Time"'s cover story last week on | derivatives and quants, ironically enough--the Wall Street nerd with | the "messy room" has replaced the hacker as the Number One Threat to | Civilization) that $ 4 Trillion in derivatives trades _daily_. | | "Quants," closely related to "rocket scientists," are those who use | math and statistics for investment purposes. Short for "quantitative." | | I urge all Cypherpunks who can afford to do so to subscribe to "The | Economist." It's filled with good, incisive articles, including the | best treatments of breaking science and technology stories in any | general magazine. Shoot your t.v., maybe, but don't let your | subsription lapse. Available also on newstands, whence information on | subscribing may be found (read the mag long enough, and you too will | speak in terms of "whence"). | | --Tim May | | | -- | .......................................................................... | Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, | tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero | 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, | W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. | Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. | "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway." | The derivatives market is a very dangerous place also. In yesterdays financial section here in Seattle there was an article about how Proctor and Gamble is reporting a loss of over $100 million in the mortgage derivative market. Also in RISKS Digest 15.75 there is an article with the subject ' God Grants Granite Gift to RISKS Punsters' that talks about a company losing $600 million over the period of several weeks in the deriviative market. Mike. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Mike Markley || The opinions here do not represent the mmarkley@microsoft.com || opinions of my employer. Attempts to || associate the two are pointless. "I want to look at life, In the available light" - Neil Peart -