Keeping Up with the Quants

3

Solving the Problem

Many people consider this stage—the one in which your quantitative analysis is performed, and your problem “solved”—at least to some degree—as the core of quantitative analysis. It is, of course, a very important activity. But it’s a somewhat more structured and better-defined activity than either the problem framing or communications stages that precede and succeed it. If you don’t have a lot of mathematical or statistical skills, it may also be the stage that is most likely to be entrusted to others who do have the quantitative abilities you need (see “How to Find a Quant”). But whether or not you’re actually crunching the numbers yourself, it’s useful to know something about the three steps involved in solving the problem. ...