someone please care to elaborate why quants have started using more of python nowadays?

Pros:
1. It is free and open source.
2. Scripting language nature gives an advantage over C++ for quick deployment and rapid prototyping, allowing quick changes for code customization for fast changing user requirements
3. Easy to integrate with C++
4. Lots of packages now available for numerical and statistical analysis. There is one python financial library at http://code.google.com/p/pyfinancial/ , though it is more inclined towards actuarial finance


Cons:
1. Slower than C++
2. Language will allow to lead to messy code if developer does not voluntarily follow proper coding guidelines

The main strong point about python is that it is free and open source, which is convenient if you want to expose a functionality to clients/users for auditing compliance, demo, etc. Matlab also does the same things like Python, but being free gives it an edge over Matlab since matlab license is pretty expensive

And, the US Government is mandated it for SEC compliance. (dunno if SC has mandated it, or government has mandated it - ok, whatever..)
Now wonder more jobs requirements have this desired skill nowadays

To add to your comment, I remember earlier in NP forum someone posted data of a statistical arbitrage application. He said he used neural networks library in python.

EDIT: It is http://www.nuclearphynance.com/Show%20Post.aspx?PostIDKey=149091

this explains why python is better than C# in some situations:


If you compare the amount of code that goes into simple C# or Python classes, you'll see that the concise syntax of dynamic languages makes it easier to write code more quickly. When creating a new class in a C# application, you have to switch from a creative mode into more of a bookkeeping mode, creating a new file and typing a chunk of boilerplate code before attacking what the class actually does. Extra syntax that does not provide any additional expressiveness to the program can be referred to as line noise. Python is much less "noisy."



Source:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc300810.aspx