Mathematical Careers and Ideas is a series of talks offered by the Department of Mathematics, designed to help undergraduates make decisions about their future careers and find out what they can do now to prepare for them.

  Professor Ocone will be our speaker on this occasion.   Here is his description of his talk:

  Markets for financial derivatives, such as options, swaps, collateralized debt obligations and other exotic sounding financial products, have grown explosively in recent years. This has created an industry demand for "quants," people with the training to develop and to employ the increasingly sophisticated mathematical techniques used to analyze derivatives and manage risk. This talk will be an orientation to the field. We will talk about what an option is and how option markets work, discuss some simple models and formulas, and indicate the larger mathematical framework.

The talk will run from 6:50 to 7:50 p.m.  You are encouraged to arrive at 6:30 for an opportunity to meet other students who are interested in mathematics.