QuantLogic: The Politics of Quant Trading

Saturday, August 05, 2006

The Politics of Quant Trading

This reminds me of what it's like to convince a non-quantitative boss to devote more capital to quantitative trading strategies:

So for aspiring quants and quant-traders, here are some hard-learned words of wisdom: never take a job working for someone who knows less math than you do.

4 Comments:

Kevin Laux said...: haha...I'll keep that in mind.

Hi, interesting blog! I was wondering if you have any advice for an aspiring quant. I'm an undergrad EE major, and I'm trying to decide what to do after graduation. Get a job? an MS in computation finance? or a PhD in EE? or none of the above? Thanks!; 4:46 PM
Marc Shivers said...: Hi Kevin,
If you're preparing for a quant career, there's not much point in pursuing more engineering degrees. I'd think about applying for investment-related jobs after college, working for a few years, then returning to grad school for finance, financial engineering, computational finance, or something like that, either master's or PhD. You could go straight through to grad school, but I think a couple years of work experience will vastly improve your grad school experience. If you have the option, look for a firm that rotates new hires through several departments and roles. Most major investment banks, and some large hedge funds, do this. Hope that helps.; 11:46 AM
Rebel withacause said...: never take a job working for someone who knows less math than you do.

LOL! This is true alsofor Risk Analysis and Portfolio Management. It took me one hour to find a mathematical mistake done by a coworker.; 3:44 PM
GB said...: I used to think that all bosses were stupid too, and of course some bosses ARE stupid, and reached their position as a result of The Peter Principle. But now that I've been working in finance for a long time, I don't think like that any more. There are good bosses out there. They're the guys who can master a brief quickly (even one relating to quantitative concepts), learn the minimum required about a situation, and reach a conclusion that may or may not be the one you want but when they explain their decision to you then you understand why it's the right one. That's why they're the boss! When you work for a guy like that, keep in his good books because he's destined for great things.

GB xxx; 7:53 PM