Quote from buzzy2:
vladi: for your enlightment i have a PhD from a top ten university, and i have sat in classes taught by nobel prizes. as far as i know the only finance professor driving a jaguar was robert merton, but i guess he had to sell it after ltcm.
so you're giving the "Myron Scholes" treatment to the wrong person. I have several friends, PhDs too saw through all the bullshit, they also are working in "industry". We all think academics are just a bunch of pathetic self-important losers scamming, using and abusing naive starry-eyed young people. If you think your professors are rich, well you must be really poor, because you haven't seen real wealth. My condolences.
Keep your condolences for yourself. You do have a PhD from a top ten university? Weird. Must not be in finance or economics. b/c you should know what efficiency is otherwise. And nope, at least two professors I can think of at my school do drive jaguars and are worth millions. I'd just love to give you the name of the school, but to keep my privacy and that of my research intact, I'd rather not.
You think academics are a bunch of pathetic losers? The pure academics maybe. Although they are not in it for the money, so I don't think you can call them that. Those that are doing applied stuff and making money on the side - I can't disagree with you more. Take Dreman for example. A good academician and his Dreman Asset Management is doing quite well, last time I heard...
The best academics are probably not the best teachers, b/c they care more about research and don't give a fuck about what the poor students are learning. I can see how someone who took their class would think they are pathetic losers...
I know there are some arrogant academics you describe. Trust me, I have met my share. As I mentioned before, I got a referree report from a top journal saying that the strategy is sample specific and rejecting the paper... At the time when the fund I based on it is doing superbly well (by the way, I did check it across a number of samples and that moron was just picking on the paper b/c he wanted to reject it and didn't like the fact I was showing such good profits...) Many professors at my school don't like me as much as they used to b/c they know I'm trading based on my research. but b/c there are those, you can say all are that way.

