Any chance for me to break into quant trading?

Just looking for some guidance as my junior year comes to an end and I am seriously contemplating my future prospects.

I am a undergrad at a non-target majoring in Mathematics, and for the upcoming summer have an IB internship lined up an EB. I tried my hand at quant trading internships for 2023 summer but didn't come up with anything. Furthest I got to was the round before the final one for IMC. It's a lame excuse, but I didn't really prepare as I was busy with IB stuff, but I always felt that if I really put my mind to it I might be able to break in.

I think I have the basic raw skills, like mental math (Zetamac score of 115~120 average), and am comfortable with basic probability concepts, but not so much with statistics.

Just wondering, with my background is it possible to break into this field? How does FT recruiting look like for quant trading positions? What are the best resources to get myself prepared? Greatly appreciated!

4 Comments
 

You’re AVERAGING 115-120 on Zetamac ?? Pretty insane m8

NORM(117.5, 25) puts you at better than a question per second about 1/3rd of the time.

You’re cracked on the numpad

 

I think my high score was a 130, but I guess I got used to the problems I saw and practiced a fair bit so it might not be the best representation of my raw skills since I sort of "gamed" it. Just took and it's been a while since I did any mental math stuff, and got a 111 lol

 
Most Helpful

Usual advice is Green Book (Xinfeng Zhou) along with a very strong understanding of conditional probability (something like Blitzstein/Hwang Ch. 1-3 very thoroughly), a very plausible story for why you're applying to quant trading having spent your junior summer doing IB, and a lot of talent and luck. Quant trading interviews are amongst the hardest out there but mathematics is a good major, and plenty of firms will give you a look if you network with their recruiting in advance. It's a pretty long shot at this point, but certainly possible.

 

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