Quantitative analysis

Ive read a bit about this field, please post anything you know about it-ie skills required, education, etc.

Thanks

Cexy

Generally you want to get a PhD (unless you're exceptional) in something extremely quantitative at a excellent university

Reply 2

pappymajek

Thanks for the reply
I guess this is why most quants have a background in maths, physics, computer science, Engineering et al. How exceptional do you have to be to secure a job in this industry without a PhD? What are they looking for on your portfolio/cv?

Is the mathematics involved mainly statistics or is pure mathematics also applicable?
Do you need to be interested in finance and banking?
Any answers would be extremely useful.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 3

SimonM

The only one I've heard of (straight from university) did Part III at Cambridge, was an IMO medalist so you can assume was a bit of a deamon.

Pure maths is very relevant for some roles, but the jobs quants do are very varied. They want coding specialists who's maths might not be incredible etc... I'd certainly consider stochastic calculus a pure topic and one which is pretty desirable in a quant.

As for an interest in finance and banking it's pretty important and if you're not, why would you want to be a quant?!

Reply 4

shiny

Original post by pappymajek

Is the mathematics involved mainly statistics or is pure mathematics also applicable?

Computational maths, statistics, machine learning and signal processing are very popular with quant recruiters. A pure maths background is ok but you would need to demonstrate some ability working with real world problems and data. Many IBs and hedge funds don't hold many pure maths researchers in-house and choose instead to work with specialist institutions or universities on more pure research problems and studies when the need arises.

P.S. Prior interest in finance and banking strangely isn't always a requirement! As my mate says: "they will become interested once they see the pay package" :rolleyes:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 5

pappymajek

Original post by shiny

Thanks for the replies.

Reply 6

BillLionheart

See http://www.markjoshi.com/ especially advice for wanabe quants

Reply 7

pappymajek

Original post by BillLionheart

See http://www.markjoshi.com/ especially advice for wanabe quants

many thanks BillLionheart, very helpful link.

Reply 8

Cexy

Noticed this thread because of SimonM quoting me in it!

I currently work as an algo trading quant, which is a different flavour of quant from the typical derivatives pricing quant (I don't use much stochastic calculus and only rarely solve a PDE, for a start). I'm not particularly inclined to spend a long time writing a general advice post when there's already a lot of great advice available for free at Mark Joshi's website (check out the forums there, and also the forums at www.wilmott.com) but if you have any specific questions I'll be happy to answer them. I'll try to check back on this thread every couple of days to see if there's anything here.

Reply 9

pappymajek

Original post by Cexy

Thanks for your contribution cexy, can I just find out about your background (degree, other interests, etc)-if you dont mind me asking. I'll check out the other link.

Thanks

Reply 10

Cexy

I have a bachelors, masters and PhD in maths from Cambridge. Other interests... plenty, although I guess the job-related ones are statistics, computer science, programming (in Java, R, Q, MATLAB and Python at work, though others in my spare time) and problem-solving using maths and programming (both of the logic puzzles/brainteasers type and the real-world type).

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 11

pappymajek

Original post by Cexy

Wow, your CV looks pretty impressive. I am aiming for a PhD-possibly an academic career but also exploring other options after PhD. Thanks for sharing that info.