alpha is a return in excess of what is expected. If you invest in a low cost index fund you expect alpha of 0 as compared to the index the fund is mirroring. If instead you put money in a hedge fund, alpha is the difference (positive or negative) between the returns the fund gets vs some benchmark like the S&P 500. Negative alpha is bad, positive alpha is good. Earning alpha means you are beating "the market".

There's also beta, which despite being the next greek letter, isn't the same at all! Beta is a measure of the price correlation between an asset and some benchmark in terms of volatility. Beta of 1 means that the asset moves in lockstep with the benchmark. Low beta means the asset doesn't move as much as the benchmark and high beta means the asset moves a lot compared to the benchmark. Tech IPOs are often high beta compared to the S&P 500.

Anyway, finance has a lot of intellectually challenging problems that happen to overlap well with people trained to build mathematical models that attempt to describe stochastic processes. CS, Physics, Stats, some branches of pure Mathematics -- all have direct applications in the work they do to some aspect of being able to understand and predict markets.

Appreciate the explanation. Thank you.

Price discovery means that anyone can find a fair price for some asset. For example, algorithms that provide liquidity in agriculture products ensure that farmers can easily liquidate their inventory, as well as hedging their risk through derivatives.

I wouldn’t close your mind to it. Finance attracts “questionable people” but finance is also very interesting on many levels and is a central part of life. Work through some finance math. Calculate an IRR. See how it works. If anything there’s a lot of great human history in it.

Thanks. I'm trying to be diplomatic here with my criticism and appreciate the positive and informative responses despite my negativity. You are right, finance is critical to social function and perhaps I've only been focusing on the negative aspects.