Wilmott

Europe – What’s the point?

12 December 2011 Paul 0

I have always believed that the EU and the Euro are simply ego trips for a few Northern European politicians, their desire for a legacy. For Southern and Eastern Europeans the EU and Euro are […]

Taxation To Slow Down High-Frequency Speculation While Not Affecting Hedging Activity

11 November 2011 Paul Comments Off

The Tobin (or Robin Hood) Tax was proposed decades ago by the eponymous Nobel Laureate (that’s James Tobin, not Robin Hood) as a means of stabilizing currencies via a small tax on all transactions. Every […]

Bankers Can’t Avoid Risk by Hiding It

9 November 2011 Paul Comments Off

(A version of this was first published on Bloomberg.com on May 24, 2011.) One of the supposed silver linings of our recent economic disaster was the idea that we finally understood how hazardous our exotic […]

Quant Lessons From The Royal Wedding

29 April 2011 Paul Comments Off

I like to teach certain quant finance ideas by reference to real life, often involving supermarkets and tins of baked beans (see for example The Role of Mathematics in Finance: Relevance, Reliance, Robustness). This is […]

HIQLEQ

11 April 2011 Paul Comments Off

In 1983 Howard Gardner proposed a theory of ‘multiple intelligences,’ and to date has listed eight different types: Spatial; Linguistic; Logical-mathematical; Bodily-kinesthetic; Musical; Interpersonal; Intrapersonal; Naturalistic. The interesting point about this is not the concept, […]

Rewarding Mathematics

14 March 2011 Paul Comments Off

We hear a lot about how talent will leave the major financial centres if taxes or regulations become unacceptable. That people move to more favourable locations is more or less plausible. But what seems to […]