When I started out, I ran several trading desks on the financial futures floors at the CME and CBOT.  Fundamental and technical analysis were all that existed.  I found that the only way to learn the quantitative aspect of the markets (circa 1983) was by walking around the exchange floors right after the close, picking up research/strategy papers off the floor near the most quantitatively-oriented firms.  Fortunately for us, books authored by Dr. Wilmott and others like him have shed a light into the math, minds, and methodology of one of the most interesting areas of global markets.