About – Wanderer in the fog

Hello. My name is Hesam Aslan and here at Wanderer in the Fog, I write about quantitative finance , economy, probability, statistics and investment in general. As an engineer and a self-proclaimed geek, I also love anything related to technology and I’ll try my hand in writing about new technologies. From time to time, I might also post about my trips around the world.

A bit about my educational background: I received my B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology in 2001 and 2003, respectively, and my Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University in 2009. I have been an analog chip designer by trade and for more than a decade, I have been designing integrated circuits for a variety of applications from high speed communications to DNA sequencing in various Silicon Valley semiconductor firms.

Summer of 2007 while studying for my Ph.D., out of curiosity, I enrolled in a summer Business Management program (mini-MBA program for engineers) in Mays Business School. There, I got bit by the finance bug and it ignited a huge passion for quantitative finance and markets in me. I have been studying markets, finance and economics since and I’ve been attempting to apply engineering concepts to what I believe lies at the intersection of engineering and the world of finance: a constant search for signals in a sea of noise, like a wanderer walking in the fog.

Eventually, I decided to formalize my financial education and pursue a masters in financial engineering. In 2021, I received my M.Sc. in Financial Engineering from WorldQuant University (founded by Igor Tulchinsky, CEO and founder of the quantitative investment firm, WorldQuant LLC).

Welcome to Wanderer in the Fog!

Why the name?

The oil painting of the German romantic artist, Casper David Friedrich is a masterpiece of romantic period. Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (Wanderer above the Sea of Fog) depicts a young man standing over a cliff and gazing into a thick sea of fog. I love this masterwork for all its magnificence and beauty as well as its intriguing message. He is seemingly in awe of the amazing scene covered in fog. Outline of certain things like cliffs and trees are recognizable but many parts of the scenery are hidden from his view. I wonder if the fog surrounding the young man could be a metaphor for the uncertain future that engulfs every one of us and the decisions we make. Like this painting, in certain areas, we might have an idea about the possible outcomes, even the possible odds of those outcomes (calculated risk) and some areas could be completely covered by the thick fog of mystery (genuine uncertainty). It makes you wonder, aren’t we all just some wanderers in the fog?

This poem by Sophia Servis and the imagery it creates, beautifully narrates the walk we all take in the fog of uncertainty.

A Walk In The Fog

Like an all-enveloping ghost
It wraps itself about me;
Sometimes thick, sometimes thin;
Blinding me of my destiny.

All the sounds it stifles
And encloses me in silence,
As if I were blind and deaf;
Swallowed by this thing so dense.

Then it begins to swirl about me
Like the tendrils of an octopus.
Radiant shafts of sunlight
Stream to earth in a nimbus.

With relief I’m on the other side,
Out of the engulfing shroud,
For there’s nothing quite as eerie
As walking through a fallen cloud.