MathsOX

Remember that this is about Ontario, not Canada. Ontario happens to be the largest sub-sovereign debtor in the world and has had spreads over underlying CAD govie benchmarks increase dramatically over the past few years.

Unless this plan is revenue neutral, which is likely not going to be the case, markets will continue to charge ever greater premiums for borrowing. Ontario desperately needs to get its fiscal house in order; it spends like it's a sovereign with the capacity to access a broad set of monetary and fiscal measures that only sovereigns have.

Well the line between traders and quants has always been blurry to the point of no differential at Jane Street, D.E Shaw, and Citadel since inception. Traders have always had quant background, but have focused on more execution-oriented analysis whereas quants are a bit more idea-oriented.

Any sell-side investment bank still has clear lines between traders and quants. In fact, while they blurred more pre-2007 I'd argue they've become more clearly defined.

Source: work at a prominent investment bank.

>That was really really dumb. They should have gone from 0.25 to 0.3 or something.

That's not how interest rate setting works at all. Plus, the Fed is still using a banded window that encapsulates your five basis point rise.

What company is borrowing at Fed Funds rates? If - theoretically, because we have to be quite theoretical to operate under your assumptions - a company was that exposed to interest rates and had zero hedge against interest rate vol they would not have the credit to hope to get funding anywhere near Fed Funds rates.

If you're surviving at the edge of loans (i.e - you're in a potential distressed scenario) you'll have bonds trading at a significant discount. This is exactly what began to happen during the early part of 2015, when Fed Fund futures had little chance of the Fed moving priced in.

A quote that stuck with me from a molecular biology class taken a year ago, "It's not who wins a Nobel Prize off of CRISPR work, it's how many there will end up being".

I'm not equating them absolutely, however I'm pointing out the Planatir began utilizing existing tech to make in roads into national defence while using that cash flow to create more proprietary technology that, once released, allowed the company to grow much quicker and that tech became it's mainstay. Presumably initial funding rounds and contracts were predicated on this being the strategy, not novel tech being utilized immediately (which is inline with what Theranos has done). The comparison stops there, at a macro level not micro level as you're describing, thus why only a sentence was devoted to it.

Yes, operating under the assumption early stage rounds were predicated on the technology existing and being sufficiently robust to carry out a certain percent of tests, that would be fraud.

Without knowing the term sheets and early investor negotiations that were held, I shy away from using the term fraudulent in the strict legal sense of the word.

Certainly you can argue more broadly that Theranos statements to the public over the past decade go beyond being disingenuous about their implementation of difficult technology and enter into fraudulent territory.

The latter half of that paragraph is articulating what I think Theranos is currently doing, not what I think they should have done.

What I said they should have done is described to their investors the business model that would act as a stop gap measure (gain market share and revenues by using existing technology) while allowing them to develop their proprietary technology to a point where it can get regulatory approval and can replace the already existing tech they're currently using.

> Leading investors to believe that you have technology that will be ready in 2011 when in reality you expect it to be ready in 2016 is not flipping a start up business model... It's just lying to get investor money

I've not seen any indication that rounds were predicated on certain delivery dates of the tech (what tech? what is the "success" percent? can the tech be augmented with more traditional tools?). If terms did get that specific, then there would be grounds for potential fraud.

Many in SV find it hard to grapple with traditional startups not penetrating health care to a greater degree; in Rise of the Robots (one of the Financial Times and The Economist books of the year) it's lamented for an entire chapter.

Traditionally the level of fundamental research and development displayed by Theranos - in areas of health or national defence - are done for years behind closed doors and then slowly rolled out to the public to mitigate any questioning of the underlying tech since the standards are understandably higher (i.e - it has to work from the start). This stands in contrast to the "move fast, break things" attitude pervasive in start-up culture.

I don't think there's anything necessarily fraudulent about Theranos, from what I've read, which seems to be the not-so-subtle undercurrent in much of the commentary. Rather they flipped the model startups should use in health, which is establish a business model that works and then work on preparatory tech in the background until it's ready to be rolled out. This seems to be largely what Theranos has done, but not what it's purposely chosen to articulate to the public and investors as it surely would have garnered less attention/funding. At this point Theranos seems to be playing the waiting game; waiting for their technology to reach a point where they can make a more transparent case for their business model and change the narrative once they've reached a point that's more aligned with the aspirations that have been articulated by Holmes for the past decade.

Once again, Peter Thiel's approach with Palantir looks to be extremely well executed and one that perhaps Theranos should have emulated.

Stanford has a transfer acceptance rate of 2%, so good for him. As for your second point, that's likely true, but it'll still be much more difficult for them to transfer than to get in straight out of High School (and impossible at schools like Princeton).

Every transfer at Harvard I know of was admitted to Harvard, but just decided to go elsewhere before deciding Harvard was the right choice.

I largely agree with this, but would add that traders (and even investment bankers in their 30s/40s) will work very little on the weekend. Certainly no senior trader is in the office.

Princeton doesn't do transfers, Harvard/Yale have 1-2% transfer acceptance rates, etc.

When transfers are admitted every year to my school (usually just 5-10) there's a writeup in the school paper about them. Without fail they all a) were accepted here, but chose to go to a similar/competing school like Princeton and b) are exceptionally accomplished at a young age.

I'm about half-way through the book. Very easy, enjoyable read. Left wondering why some of these Amazon reviews try to make it sound as if it's quite academically/technically rigorous.

That's fair. Would say that, in my experience, there wasn't much explicit nepotism at GS. If there was it'd be a case of someone's son getting good freshman/sophomore internships at small private equity shops, which made them a pretty sure merit-based bet getting into GS.

Mildly impressive in the spectrum of potential jobs, not just jobs at Goldman. Plenty of folks in the SSG leave to jobs one-off kids go to immediately after undergrad. This, of course, is all a function of your perception of the prestige of buy-side vs. sell-side (more aptly, how rarified does your position in the sell-side now have to be to get into decidedly less rarified fields in the buy-side).

You should also be cognizant of the makeup of the SSG and how it's needing to, unfortunately, evolve. It's far from a homogeneous group. The trading arm has needed to be completely restructured after Volcker came into full effect in July. Trading distressed debt is hard enough when you can take quasi-prop positions, now it's a fundamentally different business and many top traders have fled to the buy-side. I believe the only area that's truly insulated and routinely profitable is MSI, which, yes, I'd be inclined to suggest is a prestigious role. However, that's a small segment of the SSG.

I'd reverse your final sentiment. In my experience, the merits of those in the SSG are usually top notch (just pick the best of the S&T/IB pool), the prestige is debatably if your broaden the discussion. One of the best young members of the SSG just left to go back to school to learn how to code.

Also note that by context for impressiveness in the OP was, for example, to go work at a hedge fund in Mayfair right out of Oxford (perhaps, for example, at Chris Rokos' new fund as he's a maths Oxford alum).

> Stairway to Paradise: Between drags on her cigarette, one student says that she will be working for Goldman Sachs.

As someone who worked at Goldman and is college-aged, I think this says quite a lot about the piece in general. Working at Goldman is not some kind of prestigious, difficult to obtain position. If you're in investment banking, that's laughable. If you're in the SSG, then that's only more mildly impressive. I did two-weeks in London where a few of the interns were part of the Pitt club at Cambridge (albeit, not quite as storied a group, but Cambridge's version of the Bullingdon Club) and seemed to revel in this prestige despite having decidedly worse placements in every way than myself. Only one of the three members were hired back full-time.

If these kids went to work at interesting hedge funds in Mayfair then I'm inclined to suggest they have some powerful connections. But, by in large, these are 18-21 year olds with all the insecurities and lack of knowledge you'd expect. In the world of finance perhaps this club helps getting you an interview at an investment bank, that's about it. Once you see how these things work you become cognizant of the fact that stories like this are more based in what the members of the clubs want you to believe secretively, or rather a writer would like to suggest is some vast conspiracy to pontificate on his or her moral outrage, then having even the slightest basis in reality.

Now, I would grant that having this kind of network gives opportunities to become more involved in politics (similar to what Cameron himself did) at an early age. That's fair, I suppose, however this notion of these secretive groups, with members who have intellects and connections that the average chap can only dream of ever obtaining is laughable. I'd encourage folks not to be drawn into articles like this, similar to the film The Riot Club, that seek to create heroic tragedies and spark mock outrage. Things are always more dull then they appear and most things aren't intricate conspiracy theories, which unfortunately HN seems to have a predisposition towards chatting about.

> Funny how the discussion is never to simplify the code

This has been the conversation in every political debate for (at least) the past decade. It could be the one broad sentiment shared across party lines.

Almost everyone agrees on simplifying the tax code, especially corporate tax, it just becomes more difficult when vested interests are adversely affected when the rubber meets the road.

When Matt Levine includes anything in quotes, assume it's snark. He's written lots about "front-running" being, innaproporatiedy, a catch-all term, much like HFT itself.

That all seems like quasi-maths, however. What hopefully was being referred to earlier is algebra and analysis, at least up to the 2nd iteration, so one has real understanding of methods of proof.

E.g - no probability class that doesn't require analysis 1 and 2 is truly a probability class.

"He starts with the assumption of 100dB as the max power but OSHA's ultrasonic recommendation[1] is actually 145dB which is 31,000x more power.. Even if you use 130dB, it's still 1,000x more power than he assumes."

It's not bad, it's that this has already been done nine months ago. The linked post isn't updated - in which case I wouldn't have a problem with it - it's just another outlet for HN to vent at the injustices of the VC world.

There was already a lengthy discussion of this piece: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8542091

The piece aside - which I won't make a commentary on - I wonder whether this is just the right level of snark and intellectual elitism (founded or not) to be consistently popular on HN. Why it's worth dredging up, with apparently no new or novel updates, is beyond me.

Would be interested in hearing how you got involved in this and get more color on your role, if you wanted to share.

Agree with this. The best videos I've seen, and the ones listed on the page, are just the founders chatting naturally.

You're commenting on an article within America's oldest literary journal. A literary journal pontificates, deviates, muses on subjects. Taking time to frame a subject - partly for enjoyment of the process - is par for the course.

Could you provide a link to this paper?

Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto is a global leader in research and the center for all of Canada's EB patients. The EB program is the only one where ALL members must rotate (i.e - take time away from EB patients). To see the toll on all involved is devastating; partly because the realities for EB outcomes are still stark.

Sick Kid's developed an iPhone app - which is actually quite informative to go through on your own - to help create more structured outcomes: http://www.sickkids.ca/Research/iscorEB/index.html

If you'd like to tear up a bit, here's an article about The Butterfly Girl - one of the stars at Sick Kids whose strong attitude and will I can only marvel in amazement at: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/07/01/butterfly_pati...

Bloomberg terminal headline, 10:46: Greece's Tsipras calls for a 'No' Vote in July 5 Referendum

10:47 "Merkel says no new situation; Greece must hold referendum first"

10:48 "Renzi says decision for Greek people to make"

Well, for IB I can't comment much. I'd say there's a lot of downtime, playing with basic models, etc.

In S&T it's quite different and depends if you're on a quant desk; relatively illiquid trading desk, like some kind of structured product where you'll get a few trades a day; or a more normal fixed income or commodities desk where you'll be making markets throughout the day constantly trading, analyzing, and monitoring the markets.

On my desk - which falls under FI, although I won't say which area - it's quite liquid, client-focused, and fast-paced.

6am-7am - Making sure all your systems are launched, working, and then analyzing what your colleagues in London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo were up to while you were asleep. Often your book will be managed by those folks and so you'll want to know what/how they executed (assuming they didn't call you through the night to get your opinion, which does happen depending on the product you trade).

7am-5pm - You're constantly trading; analyzing your positions; looking at your risk; calling middle/back office to get things analyzed; on the phone with colleagues in London, Tokyo, etc.; perhaps stepping into the odd meeting, getting someone to watch your monitors; talking to your sales people, giving them ideas, feedback, what clients should like a certain thing at a certain level, etc.

5pm-7pm - Making sure back office completes your risk, analyzing and amalgamating your PnL for the day, chatting with other offices just as you did at the start of the day.

7pm-11pm - Perhaps you'll go home and go to bed early (9pm or so), or, depending on your area, you may go to dinner with clients or have some other social engagement until 10-11pm.

---

Trading is incredibly diverse, but I think this largely captures the roll of a sell-side (Goldman) trader in most front-office trading rolls. Quant-traders, like you'd find at certain quant hedge funds, tend to be less common at sell-side shops. You'll usually have traders, who just trade, with maths, comp sci, etc. undergrads who work with the quants (who have PhDs in those fields and don't trade at all) to get the data, systems, etc. they want. As a result traders generally, well, spend their entire day trading. Even on quiet days you'll be glued to your screen waiting, reviewing, thinking about what to do next. Market making doesn't involve letting clients dictate where the market moves necessarily, it involves being a liquidity provider and risk mitigator, which is what I'd say traders on the sell-side largely are.

I'm a summer intern at Goldman in S&T. Days for interns are the same as for the MD (managing director) you're under. You try to get in just before they do and leave when they do. Generally this is 6AM-7PM for me. I don't step foot in the office after 7PM Friday and have zero reason to do so until Monday.

On the IB side working 9AM-11PM, with many days working to 2-3AM, is absolutely the normal. As is working on each day of the weekend. However, these new hours are being enforced by HR heavily - to my understanding, there's no reason for them to apply to S&T - although I'm not sure it'll mitigate any stress.

The issue with IB internships, like any internship, is that you have huge gaps of lull time between projects. However, when you do get projects they're generally time sensitive and need to be done regardless of how long it takes you. This is the life of IB analysts, that those doing the IB internship are lining up to try to get, because it all comes down to doing your two years and going to somewhere (supposedly) bigger and better.

I'm at Goldman this summer and come from a pure mathematics background (in an area that's not very quant-focused, by choice). The first part of the article is unequivocally true. Most in my area are incredibly interesting, diverse individuals with non-finance backgrounds.

I think it's somewhat fitting that these comments are made at the best university in China, however. It's emblematic of one of Goldman's recruiting challenges: those who have done interesting things prior to college, often continuing through college, may be less likely to get into top schools and if you aren't from a top college it's demonstrably harder to get your foot in the door with these summer internships.