Quantitative Finance StackExchange Proposal

#1

Post by winanga » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 1:31 PM UTC

Quantitative Finance StackExchange Proposal
area51.stackexchange.com

Re: Quantitative Finance StackExchange Proposal

#2

Post by copernicus » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 1:45 PM UTC

To be blunt, if someone knew of some advantage that was not generally known, why would they post about it online, instead of exploiting it themselves?

Re: Quantitative Finance StackExchange Proposal

#3

Post by caffeine » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 1:57 PM UTC

The majority of the questions on that first page of proposals have nothing to do with Quantitative finance. Moderating such a forum would be a nightmare.

Perhaps this indicates a market for a separate "Hokey-pokey finance" StackExchange ...

Re: Quantitative Finance StackExchange Proposal

#4

Post by francoisdevlin » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 2:03 PM UTC

caffeine wrote: post #3

The majority of the questions on that first page of proposals have nothing to do with Quantitative finance. Moderating such a forum would be a nightmare. Perhaps this indicates a market for a separate "Hokey-pokey finance" StackExchange ...

LaughingStockExchange?

Re: Quantitative Finance StackExchange Proposal

#5

Post by mhp » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 2:08 PM UTC

caffeine wrote: post #3

The majority of the questions on that first page of proposals have nothing to do with Quantitative finance. Moderating such a forum would be a nightmare. Perhaps this indicates a market for a separate "Hokey-pokey finance" StackExchange ...

Are you looking at the "newest" questions? or the off-topic questions?

Re: Quantitative Finance StackExchange Proposal

#6

Post by djb_hackernews » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 2:25 PM UTC

looking at the on topic questions it seems more like a general QF FAQ than a specific Q and A type place.

Re: Quantitative Finance StackExchange Proposal

#7

Post by dpritchett » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 2:44 PM UTC

caffeine wrote: post #3

The majority of the questions on that first page of proposals have nothing to do with Quantitative finance. Moderating such a forum would be a nightmare. Perhaps this indicates a market for a separate "Hokey-pokey finance" StackExchange ...

Most of the samples are voted up as "great off-topic example" so I think we don't have too much to worry about.

Presumably those won't be upvoted on a real site.

Re: Quantitative Finance StackExchange Proposal

#8

Post by clammer » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 2:52 PM UTC

Having worked in this area and been frustrated by the lack of an online knowledge base, I can assure you this is a terrible idea. Come to find out there is a very good reason there is no info online about tools, methods, and tricks.

Unlike other areas, the quant space is all about secrecy and not helping your competitor, in any way. In fact, I suppose more misinformation would be given then actually helpful advice.

Re: Quantitative Finance StackExchange Proposal

#9

Post by T_S_ » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 3:30 PM UTC

copernicus wrote: post #2

To be blunt, if someone knew of some advantage that was not generally known, why would they post about it online, instead of exploiting it themselves?

QF is no different than other areas of engineering, like programming, where there is some exchange of information about methods between professionals. You can exchange a lot of information without revealing a specific trading strategy. Also there are usually auditors and risk managers that need to understand what is going on in a position and QF provides a language to describe the reasoning behind why a trader has a certain position.

Re: Quantitative Finance StackExchange Proposal

#10

Post by chollida1 » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 5:21 PM UTC

copernicus wrote: post #2

To be blunt, if someone knew of some advantage that was not generally known, why would they post about it online, instead of exploiting it themselves?

I don't know about that. I read and discuss algorithms in the Wilmott forum. http://www.wilmott.com/index.cfm

There is actually alot of useful traffic that goes on there. Having said that, the Wilmott forum acts more like mathoverflow than stackoverflow in it's non tolerance for basic questions.