Quantitative Finance

Statistical Computing in R

Heuristic Optimization

About Burns statistics

Specialties include:

  • Programming in the R language
  • Statistics, including quantitative finance
  • Solving difficult problems via heuristic optimization (genetic algorithms and simulated annealing).

Consulting

Pat has worked, mainly in finance, for over thirty years both as a consultant and an employee. We are currently not in the market for new consulting jobs.

Software development

Pat was a lead developer of S-PLUS, the precursor to the R language, in its early years. His tasks included adding functionality (such as principal components and robust estimation in several settings), finding and fixing bugs, and documentation. He has been a user of R for over 25 years.

Essential reading

By Patrick Burns

The R Inferno

Navigating the hidden pitfalls and logical circles of the R programming environment.

Tao Te Programming

A philosophical exploration of the craftsmanship behind high-
stakes quantitative code.

Additional reading

S Poetry

An earlier publication exploring the transition from S to R. Included for readers interested in the language’s history.

Blog

Recent explorations in finance, statistics, and the peculiar intricacies of computing.

  • jun 25, 26

    Living it up with computational errors

    How to have a better chance of a good outcome. Making mistakes There’s been a lot of talk recently about data analysis problems with spreadsheets.  If you’ve not stuck your [...]

  • jun 25, 26

    The AllTrials campaign

    The AllTrials campaign is pushing for all data on drug trials to be made public -- see the campaign statement. If the public has all the evidence rather than a [...]

  • jun 25, 26

    Interview with a forced convert from Matlab to R

    Here is an interview with Ron Hochreiter, Assistant Professor at WU Vienna University Economics and Business. In 25 words or less tell us what you do (using German words is [...]