Finance and Programming


Information technology revolution is reshaping the world of finance. Powerfull computers trade against each other and predict risks and price patterns. But, behind it all are people. Here is what James Simmons, a reclusive billionaire mathematician and the creator of Renaissance Capital, in one of his rare interviews, has to say about his path in life and on the role of math and technology in beating the market.

Significant opportunities exist for those who can skillfully analyze complex financial situations, create efficient computer models and test ideas on real data and simulations. But, there is a potential problem. On one end of the spectrum are "rocket scientists" with excellent math and computational skills but, sometimes, relatively weak grasp of finance. On the other hand, some economists may grasp things at the level of intuition but do not have enough practice in modeling and programming. Our aim is to strike a balance between the two poles. It is this balance that is needed in order to avoid misunderstandings and potential dissasters.

At IMQF, we have decided to make Wolfram Language (WL) created by Wolfram Research our programming language of choice. WL is based on symbolic functional programming, new and powerful way of programming. Its predecesor, Mathematica, has been for decades popular with mathematicians, scientists and engineers. New advances in WL have made it ideal for use in many other fields, including finance. The reason is that WL can dramatically simplify any programming task. Learn more about WL from its creator Stephen Wolfram: