rocket scientist

1. A scientist who specializes in rocketry.
2. Informal. An extremely intelligent person.

In the world of finance, these are people with science and math degrees who work in the finance field building highly advanced quantitative finance models. These models help banking, insurance and investment firms to price financial instruments.

Investopedia Says:

If an investment firm hires a PhD student with a background in theoretical physics to create a model that prices futures and options, that person would be considered a "rocket scientist" by the traders in the investment firm because of the complexity and skill required to create these models that help traders of futures and options.

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For those who are new to futures but want a solid understanding of them, this tutorial explains what futures contracts are, how they work and why investors use them. Futures Fundamentals

Individual with high intelligence who may develop new techniques or products. Often used negatively, as in the phrase ‘It doesn't take a rocket scientist . . . ,' meaning that individuals of normal intelligence can understand the subject in question. See also No-Brainer; Quant.

Of the technological feats of the twentieth century, those of the scientists who designed rockets were among the most spectacular, truly out of this world. They reached their apogee in the years after World War II, when expatriate German rocket scientists helped us reach new heights on Earth and in space.

Developing rockets that could break the bonds of gravity and achieve Earth orbit required complex engineering design and mathematical calculations. The world of the rocket scientist (1952) was, and still is, perceived as one in which complex thinking rests on an understanding of mathematics, aerodynamics, materials, and chemistry beyond the grasp of the rest of the human race. Their opinion was respected: "Take it from the rocket scientists who expect to fly to Mars some day," said the Baltimore Sun in 1952. "Flying saucers are not space ships from another planet."

But in the mid-1980s, as near as lexicographers can determine, rocket scientist underwent a subtle change in meaning. Rocket scientists were no longer so often in the news. When they were mentioned, it was in the phrase "You don't have to be a rocket scientist," as in this example from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution in 1992: "Mr. Coons says Grand Slam--like McDonalds's--is 'constantly looking for new ways to increase the frequency of people coming in.' You don't have to be a rocket scientist, he adds, to know that only happy customers will come back."

Why rocket scientist instead of, say, computer scientist for this phrase? Perhaps because computer scientists were all-too-familiar Geeks (1978), while rocket scientist called up the old image of a German-accented professor, something of an Albert Einstein in a white coat. So we continue to use rocket scientist, as in this comment from the Republican national convention of 1992, reported in the New York Times: "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that whatever went on in Houston, fair or unfair, 'family values' took on a connotation that was a gigantic negative."