Man Vs. Machine: The New Kings Of Wall Street


The rapid-fire growth of high-frequency trading, HFT, has spawned a new breed of market mavens whose backgrounds are far different than the traditional suit-clad Wall Street titans.

Their resumes are rich in rocket science and other non-financial fields and they may never have traded a stock, read an earnings report or scrutinized a balance sheet.

They are engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists—armed with cutting-edge technology and often located hundreds of miles from New York City.

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The supply of computer-savvy workers on Wall Street has never been greater, thanks in part to programs now being offered at top universities. In New York, students can earn a masters degree in Financial Engineering through a program affiliated with NYU.

That's just what Allan Maymin did. He graduated last year and just landed a job as a quantatative analyst.

"The future of Wall Street, in my mind, is computer on computer action, says Maymin. "Humans come in, they check their stuff daily, and it's just computers battling intraday."

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