Stochastic Processes or Galois Theory

Goldman1 · Post by **Goldman1** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 12:11 pm

I have room to take an extra course. I heard the Stochastic Processes course make you very marketable and is a good practice for any future Quantitative work.

Galois theory is also interesting. And it's algebra after all, which has always a place in Finance.

If you could only choose one, what would you go with? And why?

Thanks.

silverside · Post by **silverside** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 12:50 pm

stochastics

cause everybody knows it and uses it implicitly Tongue out

unless they are from a pde background (like some of the leading lights on the W****** site)

Nonius · Post by **Nonius** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 10:41 pm

Galois Theory.

mingon · Post by **mingon** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 8:16 am

Galois theory.

If you're good at maths (seems likely given you find galois theory interesting, though not 100% correlated in general of course), you'll pick up all stochastic calculus ever needed for quants in 1 month.

Cheng · Post by **Cheng** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 11:21 am

Stochastic Processes. P-almost surely.

Goldman1 · Post by **Goldman1** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 1:07 pm

Yeah, I'm taking abstract algebra now and it is so much fun. I feel like something would be missing in my complete understanding of the topic if I don't study Galois Theory.

tbrown122387 · Post by **tbrown122387** » Sat Oct 29, 2011 3:33 am

I'm taking that class next semester, but I wasn't aware of any connections to finance. What are some applications it's used for?

Also, sometimes abstract algebra 2 is a prerequisite for S.P.

Nonius · Post by **Nonius** » Sat Oct 29, 2011 4:26 am

there is zero application. that's why it's interesting.

polysena · Post by **polysena** » Sat Oct 29, 2011 1:45 pm

I second the view that Galois theory,pure beauty, is not be missed.

What about doing both? really not feasible? (when you love, you don't count the cost ..) I assume you must be in pure maths, I find hard to believe that finance programmes propose Galois T.

Nonius · Post by **Nonius** » Sat Oct 29, 2011 3:13 pm

Galois Theory is more about what is NOT possible, not what is mechanically possible. In that sense, it is almost useless and yet it is useful, since it gives rise to good time management; don't waste your time trying to find a formula for the solutions of a polynomial above degree 5. It belongs to the class of theories/theorems such as Godel Incompleteness, Turing Computability, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and speed of light barrier. They are all statements/facts/theorems/theories about what cannot be done. But Galois created a lot of interesting ideas/machinery around it. I have this idea that Godel and Galois have some common features, if looked at from a certain perspective.