What kind of specific education background would lead to a career as a quant trader?

[ezbentley]

First of all, what are the differences among these terms:
1. quantitative trading
2. algorithmic trading
3. mechanical trading
4. black box trading

What education discipline is most relevant to a quant trading career? Financial engineering? Statistics? Computer Science? Or is it more multidisciplinary? I am an outsider and if I want to go back to school with the goal of eventually becoming a quant trader, what program should I aim for?

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[MTE]

I'd say you have a zero chance of becoming a quant trader.

You know why?

Because if you want to be a quant trader then the first thing you should have done is your own research about the field rather than coming on to this board and asking to have the answers served to you on a silver platter. A simple google search would have uncovered a wealth of info.

 

[SCI new york]

Quote from MTE:

I'd say you have a zero chance of becoming a quant trader.

You know why?

Because if you want to be a quant trader then the first thing you should have done is your own research about the field rather than coming on to this board and asking to have the answers served to you on a silver platter. A simple google search would have uncovered a wealth of info.

Wow. Just another reason why this board is a disease. Instead of doing the right thing for someone by giving them a simple answer or better still not posting at all, you take your misery (probably due to the fact that you still can't make money even on your paper trading account) and you spill it over to another poster trying to gather information on what is supposed to be a board filled with intelligent people who trade. Do everyone else here a favor and kill yourself

 

[gaj]

you can go to books.google and look at how i became a quant or my life as a quant.

 

[Kap]

Quote from ezbentley:

First of all, what are the differences among these terms:
1. quantitative trading
2. algorithmic trading
3. mechanical trading
4. black box trading

What education discipline is most relevant to a quant trading career? Financial engineering? Statistics? Computer Science? Or is it more multidisciplinary? I am an outsider and if I want to go back to school with the goal of eventually becoming a quant trader, what program should I aim for?

Any advice is appreciated.

Physics/Engineering Phd prefearbly.

Options, Futures and Other Derivatives by HULL is the beginners bible.

1. - typically OTC structured products- fixed income 95% as Equity side is saturated
2. replaces Execution trading to attain better fills based on depth and VWAP in its most basic form.
3. taking a view/punt
4. High frequency/ Algos/ Pairs/ auto trading.

You must be of a high calibre, your employed purely for your brain and not your personality, Expect to be shut away in a dark room to crunch numbers !

 

[trader3cnd]

Ph.D in applied math with grad courses and seminars in quantitative finance.

Trading is all about math. I'm amazed by the lack of mathematical insight and quantitative ability of postes in these threads, a proof that most are not qualified to trade but are here to find justifications for their loses or reinforce their ego.

 

[me2]

these courses qualify:

rocks for jocks

18th century women authors

basketweaving

poker for football players

 

[Occam]

Incredibly, it's not obvious to you that your post is by far the most diseased and miserable in this thread.

Quote from SCI new york:

Wow. Just another reason why this board is a disease. Instead of doing the right thing for someone by giving them a simple answer or better still not posting at all, you take your misery (probably due to the fact that you still can't make money even on your paper trading account) and you spill it over to another poster trying to gather information on what is supposed to be a board filled with intelligent people who trade. Do everyone else here a favor and kill yourself

 

[Occam]

Quote from ezbentley:

First of all, what are the differences among these terms:
1. quantitative trading
2. algorithmic trading
3. mechanical trading
4. black box trading

These are all more or less the same thing. Unless the system in question doesn't use any numbers, in which case it's not quantitative. Said system might not be too profitable, though

What education discipline is most relevant to a quant trading career? Financial engineering? Statistics? Computer Science? Or is it more multidisciplinary? I am an outsider and if I want to go back to school with the goal of eventually becoming a quant trader, what program should I aim for?

Any advice is appreciated.

PhD's from the top 5 programs in either pure math or CS seem to have the highest odds of outstanding success in quant trading. But is anyone really going to do this with the sole intention of becoming a quant trader? Unlikely, although feel free to go for it if you want to and can.

If you're looking for a job post-school, another decent option might be those Masters in Financial Engineering degrees offered by many schools (Princeton, Stanford, CMU, NYU, ...). They seemed to be getting pretty good placement rates..at least until before the crash...not sure how it's going now.

One could also study CS, math, or stat; as these areas might give something more to fall back on if the financial sector continues to contract. And if you're not the type who enjoys (at least some of the time ) CS and math anyway, you're probably barking up the wrong tree.

My impression is that the failure rate in quant trading is extremely high, even amongst those who have very good preparation and/or have been in good quant jobs for many years, so I would be careful to always have an alternate career path to switch into if things in your quant career go south.

 

[toc]

Be careful of what you choose as a career. Quant traders are a disappearing species as most of the trading is being taken over by computers and algorithms in the big houses and banks.