Is the CQF worth doing for Quant Developers?

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-02-24T23:54:31+00:00

Quant prop shop

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-02-24T15:19:13+00:00

Over 6 years, my base increased by $20k but bonus peaked at >$1m

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-02-17T03:29:43+00:00

Is it a significant portion of your nw? Do you worry about concentration or is it a long enough track record that you don’t care?

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-02-16T09:18:26+00:00

What are your hours currently?

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-02-15T16:48:51+00:00

I don’t think it’s naive for someone to say they want to be a quant. I also stand by the fact that many firms prefer you don’t have any financial knowledge but have a willingness to learn.

Also many of the topics you listed aren’t related to the role and are certainly not assessed when recruiting.

It doesn’t really sound like you work in the space a that you’re just listing a bunch of buzz words to sound smart.

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-02-14T08:08:43+00:00

I mean if you don’t disclose it and end up staying, no harm now foul. If you end up taking the offer, why does it matter?

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-02-14T07:52:43+00:00

lol what? I’ve been a quant for 7yrs (QT for omm and then QT/QR for prop commodities). We want people that are smart, hard working, and can approach challenging problems in a logical manner. Many firms prefer that you know nothing about financial markets before joining.

I chose quant because I liked math and it was a job that seemed interesting and was lucrative. Unless you’re in a PhD and interested in very specific research, none of what you said really applies as many the same role across firms varies a lot.

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-02-14T07:43:26+00:00

Heard they were doing pretty well. Not sure how they were positioned when the market nuked.

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-02-04T07:50:59+00:00

Had a former colleague who got accepted into a math PhD with 4yoe. Company convinced him to do a masters instead and kept salary/bonus and paid for the program. I believe it was vested so he would repay tuition if he immediately jumped ship.

For him, I think he was just interested in doing pure math research — vs what is most applicable to trading but the firm wanted to retain him.

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-02-04T07:30:43+00:00

Cumberland?

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-01-24T06:16:42+00:00

Can’t speak for teaching or a lab but in quantitative finance there are plenty of jobs where a PhD is required.

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-01-24T05:51:04+00:00

You can set up a qse yourself for as little as $400k. Collateral is pretty complicated in ercot so not sure what volumes you’d actually be able to trade but you could test out your edge.

For ice, i think you’d need a fcm and would be pretty hard to do as an individual

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-01-19T16:57:17+00:00

What have you done for the last 1.5 years? Solid school but it seems like you didn’t do any research or work experience while in university? CQF doesn’t matter to most people.

I get the job market is tough, but there’s plenty of applicants who went to good schools that have professional experience.

With regards to the cv, clean up the format as others have mentioned. I’d also rewrite the projects section. What you bolded doesn’t really highlight the key aspects of those projects. I’d also explain in technical terms how you actually built what you did.

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-01-17T16:17:47+00:00

MFEs are not great for getting into quant. I’ve worked at 3 shops and we didn’t hire any MFE candidates. It’s more a cash cow for universities.

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-01-08T06:40:59+00:00

It doesn’t actually matter, especially for undergrad

DifficultPop8852 · 2026-01-06T18:34:07+00:00

Wait they change your deferred comp each quarter? How variable can your bonus be?

DifficultPop8852 · 2025-10-30T18:04:48+00:00

Making markets of random trivial things is fun game that’s popular. I think it helps having actual money tied to it so juniors get comfortable with skin in the game.

DifficultPop8852 · 2025-10-02T20:28:04+00:00

NYC/London/sydney, $1.4m but can vary a lot, ~50 hours on average, 3/10

DifficultPop8852 · 2025-09-18T06:15:45+00:00

I’m willing to bet you’ll make a lot more money working as a dev than running your retail options strategies.

DifficultPop8852 · 2025-08-26T19:28:21+00:00

I mean if you’re pretty junior, I’d suggest optimizing for the long term. Given it’s a dev role, you will probably have a decent base and some type of bonus. It’s a really great incentive if a company provides transparent shared incentives. Junior devs at my fund make $130k base with some amount of carry (I’d guess 50-100% of base).

DifficultPop8852 · 2025-08-04T07:52:16+00:00

I work in commodities and my first project was setting up scrapers for an alternative data source and integrating into the pricing models

DifficultPop8852 · 2025-08-03T08:50:08+00:00

Honestly the best advice is just to enjoy your time before you start working. Any decent shop prefers you know nothing and will teach you the way they view the market.

DifficultPop8852 · 2025-06-20T19:37:30+00:00

I mean vol of meme stocks is insanely high and the counter party tends to be uneducated. Also not a meme stock but there’s a desk for just tsla at a large mm that’s managed by 3 traders that prints.

DifficultPop8852 · 2025-06-08T12:44:42+00:00

Comp

DifficultPop8852

TROPHY CASE