Quantitative Analysis?

It has been more than a few years since I've had to apply any serious math skills towards my work. However, I have noticed some discussion of quantitative analysis in a few forex forums as well as job listings posted for quants.

For a very general introduction to this concept here are some links from Wikipedia:

• Stochastic calculus
• Itō calculus
• Monte Carlo option model
• Stochastic volatility
• Quantitative analyst
• Fairmat: software intro

To be honest, I don't know which of these might be most applicable at this point. These are just some general pointers for investigative purposes.

Some other places to look:

• Quantitative analysis primer (pdf)
• Algorithmic trading blog
• Quantlib: open source software
• Wilmott quantitative community (reg req'd)
• Quantitative analysis (amazon search)

So far, I've been satisfied to determine a long term fundamental direction, presumably with relatively low risk, and then develop a trading strategy that tries to take advantage of variations against that trend. However, I'm not against brushing off the old math skills to see if there is any way to integrate them into future trading strategies.

The biggest issue is time. Until I can get to the point that I'm a full time trader, I can't sit around all day rediscovering my math skills in order to develop complex software systems. However, I might be able to spend some time looking into these ideas -- perhaps getting a book or two on the subject -- to see how they may fit into future trading efforts.