How to become a wealthy Investment Banker?

you an undergrad?

Quant positions are for PhD students, these guys are smart af.. not undergrad smart but really ****in smart to the extent i can hands down say will never be able to compete in my entire life.

you an undergrad?

Quant positions are for PhD students, these guys are smart af.. not undergrad smart but really ****in smart to the extent i can hands down say will never be able to compete in my entire life, coming from a guy who has been made an offer for a summer in a strat derivatives structuring type fo role.

Not entirely true. I got to the final round of Quant-Strat recruitment as an undergrad (and for a Quant role where you'd typically need a PhD). Realistically, you'd need a PhD, but there is quite a bit of variance of roles under the term 'Quant' - some are more accessible as an undergraduate than others.

I have an offer for MSci Maths at Imperial (A*A*A, with one A* already achieved). If that isn't enough i will probably do a 3-year Pure Maths Phd after that to maximise my chances (the Phd again at Imperial), or Oxford's modelling MSc which has an equally good rep for sending ppl into quant. (I'd rather do pure maths at Imperial than Oxford because Imperial's pure maths department is insanely good haha, while oxford is better for applied maths).

I will definitely consider strating too, since most people say that's more interesting as it is half trading-half quant, and pays slightly better

I've found as a general rule, that the better the firm, the less rigid the requirements. Then again, the better the firm, the more chance you have of screwing up one of the interviews.

It's way too early for you to be thinking about doing a PhD (never mine one in pure maths, at a top university). Pretty much everyone I know who was considering doing a PhD in first/second year is no longer considering it. Not to mention doing a PhD to try and help yourself get into a Quant role is quite silly.

Then why is everyone telling me 'you need a PHd, preferably one from Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, Warwick in that order' to get into quant, or you won't get in? Literally more than 10 people have told me this now who have all got senior roles at the top banks (not just on tsr haha)

apologies if my q are dumb, i'm new to this whole IB thing, but i know what i want

x

I personally don't get the appeal of being a Quant.

Granted, there's loads of maths and fun programming involved but other than that, why is it more appealing than say a trading position?

Traders do have more upside compensation wise and arguably easier to get in than a Quant position.

If you're a PhD student working in probability, stochastic calculus/SDEs, something very heavily slanted towards simulations/modelling then I can see many reason why an individual in that situation would rather become a Quant as opposed to go into trading (it's relevant to the work they're already doing, if they're really enjoying the research aspects of their PhD the good Quant jobs tend to have an element of research and more freedom to be intellectually curious). Also, I would argue that people who do PhDs tend to be less 'concerned' about their salary and so probably aren't that fussed than they'd earn less than traders. Desk Strats, in particular, is quite appealing because you eventually assume a role that's on a sliding scale from 'Desk Quant' to 'Trader' - it's a varied job and not one you'll instantly find yourself out of if it turns out you're crap at trading. Also, they tend to work nicer hours (that's true for Quants in general, probably much less true for Strats).

That said, I find it odd when people who aren't even in university yet want to be a Quant (at least in part stemming from the fact no-one pre-university knows if they're PhD material). I suspect a lot of people completely disassociate quanting/trading, neglect to realise that there's a huge variance in the complexity, and how quant, different trading desks can be. If people are under the impression every trading role is at the same quantitative level as a cash equities (or fx spot) desk, then I can see why people would completely skim over trading, but of course you have things like credit/rates exotics desks (and plenty others) which are highly quantitative and full of maths/physics/engineer grads.

If you're a PhD student working in probability, stochastic calculus/SDEs, something very heavily slanted towards simulations/modelling then I can see many reason why an individual in that situation would rather become a Quant as opposed to go into trading (it's relevant to the work they're already doing, if they're really enjoying the research aspects of their PhD the good Quant jobs tend to have an element of research and more freedom to be intellectually curious). Also, I would argue that people who do PhDs tend to be less 'concerned' about their salary and so probably aren't that fussed than they'd earn less than traders. Desk Strats, in particular, is quite appealing because you eventually assume a role that's on a sliding scale from 'Desk Quant' to 'Trader' - it's a varied job and not one you'll instantly find yourself out of if it turns out you're crap at trading. Also, they tend to work nicer hours (that's true for Quants in general, probably much less true for Strats).

That said, I find it odd when people who aren't even in university yet want to be a Quant (at least in part stemming from the fact no-one pre-university knows if they're PhD material). I suspect a lot of people completely disassociate quanting/trading, neglect to realise that there's a huge variance in the complexity, and how quant, different trading desks can be. If people are under the impression every trading role is at the same quantitative level as a cash equities (or fx spot) desk, then I can see why people would completely skim over trading, but of course you have things like credit/rates exotics desks (and plenty others) which are highly quantitative and full of maths/physics/engineer grads.

What the pay be for someone working in a Quant Fund/Hedge Fund as a trader and for someone working on the Trading desk at a IB at different levels

ie Math Undergrad (MMath/Msci) and PhD in Mathematical Finance?

What are the advantages of working as a trader for an investment bank as opposed to trading by yourself (with your own trading account)?

What are the advantages of working as a trader for an investment bank as opposed to trading by yourself (with your own trading account)?

What the pay be for someone working in a Quant Fund/Hedge Fund as a trader and for someone working on the Trading desk at a IB at different levels

ie Math Undergrad (MMath/Msci) and PhD in Mathematical Finance?

Pretty much what Econight said. Whilst I'm not a hedgefund trader I'm an analyst, which I think is a better job personally, my comp is not that much higher then it was in IBD, which is similar to that of trading. I presume it will rise faster.

What do you do as a financial analyst? Banking n00b here.

What do you do as a financial analyst? Banking n00b here.

What do you do as a financial analyst? Banking n00b here.