[R] How to Describe R to Finance People

[Paul Gilbert]

Ko-Kang Kevin Wang wrote:

>It is not only used by statisticians or scientists,
>but also econometricians and people in finance due to its cost (FREE)
>and its powerfulness.
>
I think "(FREE)" will distract your intended audience from the real 
point. In a corporate environment, lots of people argue that free 
software actually costs more than commercial software because of 
internal support cost, etc, etc.  These arguments will all hinge 
critically on the corporate IT support abilities. For R, I have never 
seen a convincing argument that it costs more, but the real point is 
that this is irrelevant. If it costs less, that is nice.  If it costs 
more, then that is what you pay to use something that is better. If they 
need to, I think people in finance are generally willing to pay, so I 
think it is a mistake to put much emphasis on the cost. Put the emphasis 
on how good it is.

Paul Gilbert
Head Statistician/Statisticien en chef,
Department of Monetary and Financial Analysis,
     /Département des Études monétaires et financiers,
Bank of Canada/Banque du Canada
234 Wellington St.,
Ottawa,
Canada K1A 0G9