ETF Summary (Thanks to D56 from 1688.com)--by dividend_growth
ETF Summary (Thanks to D56 from 1688.com)
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From time to time people email me asking how to get started as a quant. While there are a number of fields that comprise the quant discipline and no list can be all-inclusive, if you are going to be interviewing for a quant position, you may wish to be conversant in the following areas:
- Finance and Financial Engineering, including complex financial derivatives and valuations, volatility surfaces and smiles, replication, arbitrage and equilibrium pricing models, CAPM, APT, Fama-French models and possibly risk management concepts depending on the area you’ll be supporting.
- Statistics and Probability, at a fairly deep level with a good knowledge of distributions, maximum likelihood theory and perhaps empirical distribution fitting, tests for normality and fitting of joint distribution using tools such as copulas, how to perform out of sample tests, properties and expectation of random variables, correlation and covariance and so on.
- Strong mathematics skills in areas including stochastic calculus, including martingales, markov processes (quick! What is the difference between a martingale and a markov process?), Ito’s lemma and so forth as well as ordinary calculus, differential equations, numerical methods, linear algebra and possibly a little computational complexity, algorithm analysis and optimization.
- Econometrics – properties of ARCH, GARCH, detecting the order of an AR/MA process and so on, stationary and non-stationary variance and how to test and correct for the same if need be, transformations, random walks, unit root tests and so forth.
- Knowledge of several computer packages, operating systems and languages including SAS, S-Plus, R, Matlab; expertise in a programming language such as C++, C# and/or Java, and experience with a non-Windows operating systems such as Unix.
- Detailed knowledge of capital markets may be required, including understanding of credit derivatives, mortgage securities, fixed income and detailed knowledge of various interest rate models, depending on where you will be interviewing.
- Understanding of simulation techniques such as generating simulations from various distributions and inverse transform theory, details of the Monte Carlo method and how simulation is used to value various financial instruments (also when you need to simulate as opposed to using other methods), possibly including variance reduction methods; random and pseudo-random number generation techniques, the pros and cons of various techniques, extreme value theory and so forth.
This should get you started. Good luck, and if you have questions, just post them in the comments section.
The very factors that have consumers worried about affording this year's tax bill could work in their favor this tax season.
Taxpayers whose wages were slashed in 2008 -- or worse, who were laid off -- may be eligible for tax credits that weren't within their reach in previous years. In addition, first-time home buyers and parents of children under age 17 may also be able to save a little money on their tax bill. Here are four credits that can help boost your refund:
Recovery Rebate Credit
Feel like you got shortchanged last year when the government doled out its Economic Stimulus Act rebate checks? Well, if you didn't qualify for the rebate before or didn't receive the full amount ($600 per taxpayer and $1,200 if married and filing jointly) because your income was too high (or too low), you may now be able to collect.
The rebate checks that were sent out last year were based on information on your 1040 for 2007. This second chance to collect will be based on your 2008 1040. So if your income took a hit last year, it may be worth a shot.
Homeowner Credit
For those who bought a home last year or want to in the months ahead, Uncle Sam has a little present for you. This tax credit, essentially a temporary, no-interest loan, is being offered to those who bought -- or will buy -- a home between April 9, 2008, and June 30, 2009, and who didn't own a home during the three years preceding the purchase.
The maximum amount of the credit equals either 10% of the home's price or $7,500 ($3,750 if you are married, but filing separately), whichever is less. One hitch: Homeowners will have to repay the credit over 15 years by either owing more in taxes or receiving a smaller refund.
Child Tax Credit
Many parents will be eligible to receive a tax credit of up to $1,000 per child this year as long as that child was under the age of 17 at the end of 2008. (This credit is in addition to the regular $3,500 exemption that you can claim for each dependent.)
The child tax credit begins phasing out for filers whose modified adjusted gross income is above $110,000 if they are married and filing jointly, above $75,000 for single filers, or more than $55,000 for married filing separately. In addition, the child (who can also be the filer's sibling, stepchild, grandchild, niece or nephew) must not have provided more than half of his or her own support and, in most cases, must have lived with the filer for more than half of 2008.
The one catch: The amount you receive from the child tax credit is partly based on your income, so you may not receive the full amount -- or possibly anything. If you don't qualify for any or all of the $1,000 child tax credit, you're still in luck. Try applying for the additional child tax credit, which also offers up to $1,000 per qualifying child. (Taxpayers who qualify for parts of both credits can only receive a maximum of $1,000 per eligible child.) Typically, this credit is reserved for low-income taxpayers, but a recent change in the way the IRS computes eligibility for this credit, will allow more middle-income taxpayers to qualify this year, says Eric Smith, a spokesman for the IRS.
Earned Income Tax Credit
To qualify, families with two or more children must have made less than $41,646 in 2008, and those with one child must have earned less than $36,995. Also, individuals without children who make less than $15,880 are eligible. The maximum credit for each of these groups is $4,824, $2,917 and $438, respectively.
