Quantdom

Within quantdom, the question of whether alpha exists as a finite market commodity is a topic of debate.

By day, Mr. [Sercan] Ozbay works in electronic trading, the branch of quantdom indicted in Michael Lewis's new book, "Flash Boys," for shaving microseconds off the speed of trades in order to game the market.

My eventual quantdom was not the culmination of a single-minded, eye-on-the-prize march to fulfill my destiny. It was the result of a series of accidents.

As quantdom grew more glamorous in the '90s — and as nerdhood in general became more firmly entrenched in the business world during the dot-com boom — any lingering ridicule behind quant faded away.