financial engineers

They were all known as "quants," traders and financial engineers who used brain-twisting math and superpowered computers to pluck billions in fleeting dollars out of the market.

The quants did their best to contain the damage, but they were like firefighters trying to douse a raging inferno with gasoline—the more they tried to fight the flames...

To financial engineers, CDO derivatives are gorgeous. They can be twisted and turned into a million tantalizing shapes.

One beauty is called a "CDO squared." You've got a bunch of high-risk CDO equity tranches that just aren't selling.