To some, quants are like nuclear warheads in the Cold War. The Russians had theirs, so we had to have ours. It was a numbers game. The objective was to outpoint the other side.

And so it goes on Wall Street, where hiring astrophysics PhDs got really competitive for a while. But unbeknownst to us all, the SEC had a quant of its own: Gregg Berman, once a doctoral candidate in physics at Princeton who spent time searching through subatomic data for a heavy neutrino, according to the New York Times.

"Now, from his small office at the Securities and Exchange Commission here, the former physicist is busy completing a similarly painstaking task, supervising a team of more than 20 investigators who have spent the last five months scrutinizing reams of stock-trading data and hundreds of interview transcripts in an effort to figure out why stock prices went into free fall for 20 terrifying minutes on May 6," notes the Times.

Berman's report ranks as one of the most widely awaited regulatory reports in recent memory. It is sure to ignite controversy. Many expect it out sometime this month.

He has whetted appetites by saying the report will not simply rehash what's already been in the media. Instead it will "zero in on a specific sequence of events that preceded the crash." It will likely be extremely complex, but what else could it be.

For more:
- here's the article

Related Articles:
SEC looks at Flash Crash and market makers
The big picture on algorithmic trading
What's it really like working as a top quant at Goldman Sachs
Quantitative funds shakeout continues