The Lightsabers of Quant Finance

74 Things Every Great Star Wars Movie Needs from Wired Underwire. #22 Lightsabers - they are light, precise, focussed (cutting like a scalpel ...), easy to pull, .... not a weapon destroying masses, great in the hand of the good - to fight, say, hidden monsters under surfaces.


In quant finance (fight hidden monsters ... ) it is the right combination of models and methods for the purpose - a special deal type in a certain market regime. Those combinations are often used hundred millions of time - they need to be light, precise and robust, flexible, easy to apply differently, acting like a scalpel, ...

To understand for which purpose they are fit, instruments, models and methods need to be organized orthogonally and even numerical parameters of a certain scheme may play a role - avoiding making a model/method combination an "automated weapon" that does not cut, but destroy.

Precise and robust mathematics, really matters.