Quant or IB?
I know WSO is primarily focused on IB/PE but I’m interested in being a quant too. How would I know which one is right for me? I’m going to a target, so does prestige matter for quants as much as IB and do you need a PhD to be employable and well compensated? Both seem like great careers but not too sure on which one I should pick. Thanks
can you sit on a chair and deep focus on minute part of a problem for three weeks with minimal interaction and enjoy yourself?
Pretty low quality post (It seems like you don't know anything about being a quant) but I'll bite.
First of all, do you even have the math brains to be a quant? Try solving some Putnam problems. (A1 and B1 are usually the easiest problems). If you get at least 1 right, then maybe being a quant is something to consider. If you can't, don't even bother.
Even if you do have the brains, then comes the mental and personality aptitude. Quant (I'm assuming you're talking quant research or quant trading, quant engineering is just software engineering with little bit of probability) is mostly a research/data science role. If you like staring at a problem for weeks and failing multiple times, then why not give it a shot. Moreover, you need to be a creative, inquisitive, and structured person with GREAT problem solving skills.
Being a quant is a choice if your other options are going into academia or industry research. IB vs quant is not.
Not sure why you got MS
You need to be good at math (sorry, mathS) and thinking in systems kind of shit to become a quant whereas any presentable kid from a target school could go into IB. Quant roles are filled with applied math and physics majors from MIT while there are plenty of history, philosophy and other bullshit grads and, the most ingenious of them all, post-MBA associates in IB. Completely different recruitment classes and roles
Yes - very odd
It's based on your skillset. IB would need more soft skills while quants need hardskills. Its also easy to think that you can just become a quant, but the coursework is very hard (upper level math/CS).
Yeah this - it doesn't sound like OP is in a difficult science major.
There is a quant forum too - it might give you a better idea from the banter there.
https://forum.wilmott.com/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=8e15931a02fe3f5f69179f2…
Thanks for this. I took a look at it.
It seems like it focuses way too much on more traditional financial mathematics - with Brownian Motions and Stochastic Calc and what not. Looks like the thread is mostly filled with sell-side quants (As they are the ones who live and die by Stochastic Calc) and clueless Indian people asking for "Advice on how to break into finance".
Not enough discussions on ML and Operations Research methods for Portfolio Optimization unfortunately. I never can find a forum on those.
What should you major in to become a quant researcher/ trader? Math, CS, EEE...? What's your view on the future of quant HF/ PT?
As someone who tried quant and quickly went back to IB, guess I should give my view.
I got to a quant shop and quickly got disillusioned when I looked under the hood. I then looked at other shops and didn’t like what I saw there either. A lot of very superficial strategies that were guaranteed to see their alpha arbitraged away quickly.
Basically I think numbers prove to be way less powerful than they seem at first. And even where numbers are powerful, there’s the other problem: what can you do with numbers that others can’t?
I don’t doubt there are some good quant strategies out there and if you find data work to be a lot more stimulating than thinking about the qualitative aspects of a business, maybe you have a better chance of developing a quant edge than a fundamental edge.
But if your interest in those two is roughly equal, I feel an edge on the qualitative side is a lot more lasting. Say you understand something about the competitive dynamics of an industry and the market hasn’t fully grasped that truth yet, you can make concentrated high conviction bets and probably for a long time. If OTOH you backtest some balance sheet ratio that adds 100 bps of alpha, I’d worry that it doesn’t last long in this environment of every STEM person gunning to be the next Simons.
So I’ve found IB to be a much better fit and training for my current fundamental investing role but to each his own.
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