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I respect the author's point of view, and I have to agree that Wall Street has .. well.. no moral compass (or maybe its compass points continually to $$$). But

by rluhar 15y ago

I respect the author's point of view, and I have to agree that Wall Street has .. well.. no moral compass (or maybe its compass points continually to $$$). But I don't completely agree with his description of what a quant does. It all depends on where they work and what asset class they focus on. Some quants determine the trading strategy of a desk. They are in charge of making strategic and technical decisions. Some tech driven trading desks actually are structured as a sort of "start up" within the main bank. The team would have a couple of quants and a bunch of programmers working together. The quants specify the strategy and the algorithm, the programmers code, test and deploy it. In these situations, the quant is not a subordinate to the trader, but a peer. This post reflect's the author's own experience and it makes for interesting and entertaining reading. I doubt, however, that it is a true reflection of what a quant's job is.

mdda 15y ago
IMHO, his view of the quant life was distorted by being on the 'sell-side', where the trader and salespeople reign supreme. On the buy-side, quants are much more of the revenue generators. That'll become increasingly obvious now that (soon) banks won't be allowed to prop-trade : there'll be a migration of a lot of the 'value add' to the buy-side (true hedge funds, mainly).
- rluhar 15y ago
  Indeed. Though it really depends on the asset class. On liquid asset classes (equities, FX, etc.) there has been more and more focus on algorithmic market making and order execution. High frequency trading outfits and having extremely latency / price sensitive counter parties (i.e. the buy side hedge funds) has forced the sell side desks to evolve to a more tech driven trading model. In FX, banks like Deutsche and Barclays make loads of money off algorithmic market making and order execution. Way off topic .. apologies.

by rluhar 15y ago

mdda 15y ago

IMHO, his view of the quant life was distorted by being on the 'sell-side', where the trader and salespeople reign supreme. On the buy-side, quants are much more of the revenue generators. That'll become increasingly obvious now that (soon) banks won't be allowed to prop-trade : there'll be a migration of a lot of the 'value add' to the buy-side (true hedge funds, mainly).

rluhar 15y ago
Indeed. Though it really depends on the asset class. On liquid asset classes (equities, FX, etc.) there has been more and more focus on algorithmic market making and order execution. High frequency trading outfits and having extremely latency / price sensitive counter parties (i.e. the buy side hedge funds) has forced the sell side desks to evolve to a more tech driven trading model. In FX, banks like Deutsche and Barclays make loads of money off algorithmic market making and order execution. Way off topic .. apologies.