DARPA math challenges. My favorite is “Mathematical Challenge Nineteen: Settle the Riemann Hypothesis.” I’m guess that’s one where you can’t follow the age old strategy of writing a grant proposal for work you’ve already figured out 😉
Analyzing Games
Yes, it’s all finance all the time, here at the Pontiff. Where else can you go to get your daily dose of extralusionary intelligence?
Once again it’s a New York Times article Maybe Short-Selling Isn’t So Bad, After All. Now I don’t know much about how the changes in shorting stock (the removal of the uptick rule, where one could only short the stock on an up move in the stock, and the banning of shorting of a large group of stocks) effect trading, but I think I’ve plaid enough games in my life to know that the following argument is a good way to spot a sucker:
Has the rule’s removal been an important contributor to the bear market of the last year? Professor Reed doubts it. Before scrapping the uptick rule, the S.E.C. ran a pilot program to test the possible consequences. In the test, the rule was lifted from hundreds of stocks that were part of the Russell 3000 index. The trading patterns of these stocks were exhaustively analyzed in a number of academic studies, all of which concluded that the rule had no significant impact on those stocks’ price movements, Professor Reed said.
Let me get this straight, you site as evidence that the removal of the uptake rule didn’t have any effect during a pilot program in which announced securities which were exempted from the uptick rule as evidence that the uptick rule once unleashed on the entire market doesn’t have an effect? Suppose that you are a player in such a game, and it is true that you could use the removal of the uptick rule to your advantage. What would you do during the pilot program? Nothing at all, of course! Why spoil the upcoming fun? Maybe I’m missing something, but pilot changes in rules of a game don’t necessarily reveal how the players will act when the pilot goes full scale, do they?
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Picking on the Quantum Physicists
From this Sunday’s New York Times in an article entitled Wall Street, R.I.P.:
In search of ever-higher returns — and larger yachts, faster cars and pricier art collections for their top executives — Wall Street firms bulked up their trading desks and hired pointy-headed quantum physicists to develop foolproof programs.
Quantum physicists? Come on media get it right. I’m pretty sure those were string theorists who ruined America 😉
Personally I think we should use the association of Ph.D. physicists as the cause of the Wall Street mess to lobby for higher science funding. “Sure you could cut science funding, but then all those Ph.D.s are going to end up on Wall Street and the next thing you know everyone will be on the street stuffing newspaper in their shoes to keep warm.”
Burning Out His Fuse Up Here Alone
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I’m a rocket man
New Word for Friday
The prime number theorem is a statement of a quantuplicity: there are about N/log N prime numbers in the first N numbers.
quantuplicity noun. The quantitative relationship between two amounts. Usually referring specifically to the case when this is expressed as a ratio giving the number of times that one contains another (or vice versa.)
Calculating quantuplicities for different sociological quantities can lead one to a very complicated poset.
Mattress Money
There are many things I do not understand in the wide world of finance, but the one which perplexes me the most is why people believe that their money is safe under their mattress.
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Reminder Seattle: 1 Millionth Comment Party
Reminder that Sandra, Maria, Grrl, and I will be Ozzies this Saturday. Translation: beer! That’s Saturday, Sept. 27th at 4 pm in the upstairs mezzanine at Ozzie’s. The address is 105 W. Mercer St., Seattle, WA 98119. That’s in lower Queen Anne just east west of that gigantic need with a spaceship stuck on top of it.
What These Days Remind Me Of…
“Dreams of poverty excited universal enjoyment in Berkeley, coupled with the hope that the political and economic situation would worsen, throwing the country into ruin: this was the theory of the activists. Misfortune so vast it would wreck everyone, responsible and not responsible sinking into defeat…” – from The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K. Dick
Dickian Physics Abstract
An entry into the “best abstract ever” subcompetition of the “best title ever” competition, arXiv:0809.3979:
Counterfactual Quantum Cryptography
Authors: Tae-Gon Noh
Abstract: The ‘quantum counterfactuality’ is one of the most striking counterintuitive effects predicted by quantum mechanics. This manuscript shows that the counterfactual effect is not merely an interesting academic theme, but that it can also provide practical benefits in everyday life. Based on the quantum counterfactual effect, the task of a secret key distribution between two remote parties can be accomplished even when no particle carrying secret information is in fact transmitted. The secret key obtained in this way may be used for secure communications such as internet banking and military communications. This manuscript also shows that, in some cases, the mere possibility that an eavesdropper can commit a crime is sufficient to detect the eavesdropper, even though the crime is not in fact carried out. In a sense, part of the story of the SF film Minority Report seems plausible.
Emphasis mine. Horselover Fat would be proud.
Goldman Sachs Is Jealous
Nintendo Ad. Go ahead watch it on youtube.