I don't think there is any job which does not have a lot of pressure in this area. Come on! we are handling money, think about this way, in order to hire you and pay you the salary, how much more trade a bank will need to do! Profit is crucial here and money (most of the time just as numbers) are very very very sensitive items here!
Totally agreed! A lot of pressure in this area. A lot of pure math, general math, cs skills, and of course financial knowledge are required. Also, as you can probably tell from the bbs here, how many good books out there! Life long learning process :)