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Congrats for your newfound love and condolences for your grandfather. Tread carefully - intellectualizing love is existentially rocky territory. I have worked
by jayruy 17y ago
Congrats for your newfound love and condolences for your grandfather. Tread carefully - intellectualizing love is existentially rocky territory.
I have worked in algorithmic trading, hedge funds, and investment banking. I have degrees in CS and Mathematics.
There are a rare few people who have walked these footsteps - see Jim Simon of Renaissance or Doyne Farmer of Prediction Company. And of course there are more you never hear of because they don't have enough money or interest to garner media attention. This community is not an open community because unlike the open source world, it is not beneficial to share knowledge. Governments have to force them to.
One question I wonder if you've considered: do you feel comfortable working within boundaries that governments have the power to change? It's an aspect of the job I find interesting, but I feel many members here would find frustrating.
Mathematics is far more important than C.S. at crafting algorithmic trading strategies, but developers are in far more demand. Quant shops only really need one genius, and maybe a few in training in case the first gets hit by a bus.
In terms of what mathematics: you're going to need stochastic calculus, but don't worry about that yet. Unless you are blessed you're going to need a PhD in math or physics. The importance isn't the thesis, but the topical knowledge along the way regarding which relationships break down under what conditions. Most entry-level quants go for the PhD and pick up stochastic calc while job searching. Machine learning is no panacea: regression (a form of machine learning) is the oldest trick in the book.
So I'd suggest forgetting about finance altogether until you absolutely have to. If you're absolutely serious: ride the academic train for as long as you can. It's not easy riches, but neither is quant finance. Easy riches is swapping MBO's to your buddies on comission.
- jayruy 17y agoAlso on a more practical note: take note of high-frequency data costs. FX is the only asset class you can study in detail without major financial backing because of the costs. This seems to happen even in academia: research in CDS's seemed slim before the financial crisis, I imagine partly because the major U.S. data provider has enjoyed monopoly pricing.
- cleancode 17y ago> Tread carefully - intellectualizing love is existentially rocky territory. I am aware of this. Now after reading your comment I need also a self-confidence and optimism to all that. I am just not sure if I can handle all this. I mean I am smart but not genius for sure. Is it worth it to persist in this field even if I have no talent in mathematics?
- jayruy 17y agoYes - as I mentioned regardless of quants there will always be heavy demand for mathematically-minded developers in finance. As far as enterprise development goes, it's a great (well funded) industry to work in. Technologies tend to focus on proven fault-tolerant methodologies - think .NET/Oracle stacks instead of Ruby/Cassandra or whatever the flavor of the month is on the internets. Don't sell yourself short on mathematics before undergraduate - the nature of mathematical talent changes the deeper you get into a particular topic. But yes: if your goal is to become a quant, do not think it will be easy to get into the industry without a PhD.