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

the reality is that you have to know how to program. the degrees looked at are usually math. engineering, cs. the better the school name the better it is.

most of the math involved is not even close to phd work, its closer to high school work. and the strategies are more street smarts ("street" meaning you can take advantage of markets from a programming point of view)

it all comes down to programming. if you cannot program the guy that can will do it and you will be useless. i dont believe you can hire a programmer to do the work and you do something else. programming is the prerequisite, without it you just sit there.
 
Quote from jack hershey:

The two that come to mind most easily are Derman's humorous autobiography and the very humorous "The Predictors". Also get the story on LTCM; it is funny too. "Bogle on Mutual Funds" reaches its pinnacle of humor when he compares mutual funds to indexes and to his holdings in stock of Vangard.

Derman shows how the industry and its satellites functioned.

My vantagepoint comes from circulating in those satellites and having the paradigm, its hypothesis set, and parametric measures that does the print you observed.

I was made an MTS at BTL while in grad school. Being an adjunct prof at Wharton was fun too. The Links Club in NYC was a nice hang out for meals where some heavy hitters pass the time of day out of the public eye. The other clubs were at the top of various buildings.

Because I have been active for more than 50 years, I see the past quant era from a different viewpoint. I had to put up with thescrew ups of the SEC when they were first learning how poorly programmed computers worked. It was tough educating them at the time. It took them quite a while to figure out I couldn't possibly know as many people as they were citing me for insider trading with.

the youngest kids I have ever seen do trding were fifth graders at a private school in Hollywood.
More...
But the fact is you never made a dime from trading. We all thought you had taken the high road and left ET because you were proven to have nothing left but your moth-holed underwear.

Don't come back now with memoirs of past fantasies.

Just enjoy your Iterative Retirement.
 
Quote from rosy2:

the reality is that you have to know how to program. the degrees looked at are usually math. engineering, cs. the better the school name the better it is.

most of the math involved is not even close to phd work, its closer to high school work. and the strategies are more street smarts ("street" meaning you can take advantage of markets from a programming point of view)
More...

A lot of people say it's high school math, but I find myself at odds with traders who only understand the math at a high school level. The fact of the matter is that you need someone with a real statistics (maybe MA Math-Finance or MFE) to do your risk calculations correctly. This isn't to say you can't learn and iteratively refine your models, but it's the crisp reports from statisticians that make the job go smoother.

Not to plug my profession or anything.
 
Quote from Nattdog:

electrical engineering is a great major for would be traders.
More...

And don't forget the importance of a good grounding in astronomy. The moon and stars have a lot to do with cycles
on the earth. Also learning to compose music and play tennis are helpful. Stosh
 
Quote from rosy2:

the reality is that you have to know how to program. the degrees looked at are usually math. engineering, cs. the better the school name the better it is.

most of the math involved is not even close to phd work, its closer to high school work. and the strategies are more street smarts ("street" meaning you can take advantage of markets from a programming point of view)

it all comes down to programming. if you cannot program the guy that can will do it and you will be useless. i dont believe you can hire a programmer to do the work and you do something else. programming is the prerequisite, without it you just sit there.
More...

Here's an eighth grade Earth Science question for example.

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2483950#post2483950

Lets see how Lo does, either the MIT Lo or lolatency will do....Lo l....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top