Commodity Fundamentals vs Quants
My background
Global Economics BA (international relations)
Current 2nd year oil analyst
Hey everyone,
I’ve really enjoyed working with HF clients and find myself increasingly interested in eventually pivoting into an analyst/research role at a hedge fund trading oil. I know this might be a multi-year process as I continue building my expertise, but I’m at a bit of a crossroads.
My strength lies in understanding oil market fundamentals, and I have a solid grasp of geopolitical analysis due to my background. However, I’ve noticed that many oil market roles at hedge funds lean heavily on quant skills. I’ve taken certification courses in Python and AI and use them frequently, but when it comes to coding, I often rely on AI or adapting pre-existing scripts. To be honest, math isn’t my strong suit—I see quant tools as a means to enhance market research rather than the core of my skill set.
So, my question is: Am I at a disadvantage if I’m not a quant genius? Do you need to be highly quantitative just to land a role at an oil/macro HF? I’ve seen that some smaller firms I interact with aren’t as quant-heavy, but I’m wondering if the overall industry is shifting in that direction—where deep fundamental analysis on OPEC dynamics, supply-demand fundamentals, and geopolitics takes a backseat to algorithms and data models.
the best commodities HFs - Citadel/BAM/DEShaw etc. will definitely want their analysts to be very good at coding and maths altho a STEM background isnt strictly required. For refernece - https://www.citadel.com/careers/details/commodities-analyst/
My advice would be this: play to your strengths! There will be lots of people with a STEM background with great coding skills. From what you wrote you are unlikely to beat them in this area. But you have lots of knowledge and skills that they don't have. I am sure there will still be roles where your expertise is valued. By all means learn a bit more coding etc if you want but I would be looking to even further strengthen what you are already good at. The right role will be there for you and for that job you will easily beat all the coders!
I'd say that there's a place for both ends of the spectrum. Virtual Barrels is a good book you should check out tho, if even just to learn.
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