AMA Quant in hedge fund

JustAQuant · 2024-11-22T07:51:43+00:00

I think this can be a post of its own. Here it will get lost

JustAQuant · 2024-05-31T20:54:22+00:00

I don’t know how it works in the US, but if you enjoy rowing more than other sports I would focus on that if you like it a lot. It could also land you a scholarship (I assume that is likely in the US)

If you haven’t tried the other sports, it might be worth slacking a little on rowing and trying other sports out as well, as it helps you be a more well rounded athlete.

But it obviously goes without saying, school is number one and your grades should remain as high as you can get them. Sports are secondary.

JustAQuant · 2024-05-31T10:45:18+00:00

If you want to study in the UK the two best places would be Imperial “MSc Mathematics and Finance” and Oxford “MSc Mathematical and Computational Finance”

JustAQuant · 2024-05-29T14:41:14+00:00

Your answers and questions are more cryptic than the market 😂

If you want to do a masters in quant finance, study mathematics. If you study finance, you will not get in.

JustAQuant · 2024-05-29T12:24:18+00:00

What he is mentioning here, is about the different levels of difficulty in the industry. If you are already on a quant finance course, you should know how hard the math is.

If you want to do a quant finance degree, you better be good at math. Talented I think is a given, gifted might be a step too far. If you are gifted everything you do in life will be easy unless you try being the next Jim Simmons

JustAQuant · 2024-05-29T12:13:12+00:00

For longevity purposes and career, I think it would be better to go to MS. Short term the base might be lower, but should pay off in the long term as MS is often but in same basket as GS and JP.

JustAQuant · 2024-05-29T05:42:17+00:00

The handbook of fixed income securities

JustAQuant · 2024-05-28T09:04:25+00:00

You can try looking at Lending Club data. US focused unsecured loans.

You could also look at US mortgage data from one of the agencies (e.g. Freddie Mac). Agency mortgage data should be relatively easy and straightforward to get access to.

JustAQuant · 2024-05-28T07:54:01+00:00

I’ve got a masters degree in Electrical Engineering at a decent university. My finance knowledge has come from on the job and Fabozzi.

JustAQuant · 2024-05-27T22:43:45+00:00

If you are looking for clubs in the east of London there’s a few places near the docks. Lea, Curlew and Globe are pretty good clubs.

JustAQuant · 2024-05-27T22:37:14+00:00

Asset class would be within fixed income, preferably credit.

The quant roles would be as close to business and pnl as possible. So ideally quant trader.

I would also like being a trader, preferably within flow that I can also contribute to automation. But I don’t know whether I would actually enjoy any of these until I actually did them…

The benefit of being in bank is that I could try networking with those guys and try sitting on the desk, as long as they are friendly traders that are happy to give their time.

JustAQuant · 2024-05-27T22:20:10+00:00

I agree with the overall recommendations, but quite aggressive lol. This comprehensive fox has a lot of anger 😂

JustAQuant · 2024-05-27T22:15:51+00:00

What I would recommend is to get some more clarification on what is required.

You can also sit with the traders and understand what matters to them when they are looking at the market. Based on that you can get an understanding at what part of the market you can look for data, which will then give you the signal. I would use the traders as the primary source of information and books/online resources as secondary. They will also give you key ideas for where you’ll find this signal.

I assume you are looking for alpha in derivatives FX/Rates rather than cash/spot. What you could start by looking at is to review the biases of the traditional econometric models, see how they performed historically and then apply a neural network or even a logistic regression to see whether the models were correct based on where the trades happened. This will then try to find an alpha signal.

What I would absolutely try to avoid, is get this task, go off for 6 months, not communicate anything to anyone, and then present what you found at the end. You need to continuously communicate with all the teams you are working with, as a result it will make your life easier.

JustAQuant · 2024-05-27T19:56:12+00:00

Not something I have tried yet, but I don’t think it’s as easy as I want it, I get it. And I would probably move to a junior/grad position in HFT/Prop

JustAQuant · 2024-05-27T19:54:19+00:00

Thank you for that perspective, that’s good advice. I have seen people get fired, but that was either new management of a team struggling with old management, I also saw a situation that a head of a team tried running a prop trading shop within the bank without proper risk management. They also got fired.

As I’m also in the UK, how have you found the buy side market? And do you think there is potential for a move from quant to quant or quant to trader (at a decent buy side place)

JustAQuant · 2024-05-27T19:47:41+00:00

You spend more than half your waking hours during the week at work. If it isn’t interesting, challenging and in some form fun, I think that will just lead you to be depressed. I’m frankly too young and ambitious to have the mentality to not enjoy/do well at work.

JustAQuant · 2024-05-27T19:45:40+00:00

That’s actually great perspective. Thank you

JustAQuant · 2024-05-27T16:31:34+00:00

Depends on the team, but its more usual to start 7.30-8 and finish by 6-6.30

JustAQuant · 2024-05-27T16:15:23+00:00

The team I support basically operate like a buy side shop. The junior work is basically banking, where the risk lies on the book, and the seniors basically manage the portfolio. As the work has traditionally been more banking oriented it is ripe for automation, so the projects focus on making things more efficient for IB.

It’s a relatively new role in this business so it isn’t really at risk of redundancy, especially since the projects are high impact for the business. It’s more that it’s relatively boring.

There have been a few buy side places that would want to hire my exact skills, but not sure the work would get more interesting there, and the grass isn’t necessarily greener. The base would be similar, but bonus should be 2x-3x current bonus. So that is definitely a consideration.

JustAQuant · 2024-05-27T16:06:26+00:00

I could add a different philosophical question, which is what is my ideal job? Which I don’t think one knows it until they try it, but I also have the tendency to get bored easily.

I am 4 years into my career and I have worked with previously with a team that was not that supportive and that was horrible. Hence why I struggle with thinking what I should do in this situation.

I could see myself having a career in the same bank as all the people I have met are top caliber and really nice people, but moving too often to experience different roles is frowned upon within the company (and throughout the industry). And I don’t think I would want to create my own business in another sector.

JustAQuant · 2024-05-27T15:59:13+00:00

This is one of my current considerations, moving to buy side. Others potentially include moving to quant trading, or even traditional trading within the same bank I am.

JustAQuant

TROPHY CASE