Do I need to be a genius to become a buyside quant researcher/trader/developee

do you have to be in the 99 percentile at MIT? Everytime I look at a ib forum they always say that but when i look at quant forum they say the exact opposite I truly don’t know at This point.

It it true with a t20 university you have a good shot? or do you have to be naturally exceptional in mathematics?

Other than very low paying jobs, The quantitative finance and tech industry is what I would like to work in the most. but maybe that’s out of reach.

22 Comments
 

Don't listen to bankers who don't interact in the public markets. Go to Quantnet. It's doable. Unlike IB/PE, public markets and trading is meritocratic. If you've got skills, can make money on your own, and show you're smart, you'll be taken in. It's very hard to find good developers that know stats + math, have an interest in the public markets, and can generate their own trading ideas/strats. If you can do this on your own, I don't see why you wouldn't become a quant dev/trader. Researcher you need a PhD because these are literally like researcher roles where they do nothing but test their ideas all day long like in academia. 

 

I mean my logic is this, anyone can trade. It's just the firms provide you with capital. Long term, when you become a PM, you are responsible for generating P&L using the fund/firms money. So instead of grinding away for 10 years for that spot, why not just learn by doing yourself? I'm coming at it from a programmer POV. Everything I know, was self taught. Even in school, while the information was spoon fed to me, I still had to do the homework and self study to actually understand the material. I could be wrong though.

 

I dont know about this, sure maybe for mid or low tier firms it's possible but for big firms like citadel or 2sigma? You need to be born significantly smarter than the average person, and your traditional finance peers.

In my personal opinion, he should try high finance if he wants the most likelihood of maximizing income because making more than a banker at a bank or pe firm is very unlikely unless you are a genius in math 

quant trading/research being meritocratic is a bad thing for non geniuses because it means your income and opportunities are far more limited than an investment banker. (not including developers because they are basically SWE's and that takes lower intelligence)

 

I think you are looking at things too rigidly and are placing too much emphasis on intelligence and forgoing creativity, exploration, and experimentation. At the end of the day, public markets are no different than any other market and you're just trying to make a consistent profitable spread and move on with life. This premise that you need to be significantly smarter just doesn't sit right with me. There's also other ways to be profitable other than just smart, and that's being first or cheating and it happens all of the time in markets.

 
Most Helpful

I'm a QT, so I can't speak for QR/QD, but I would say it is not quite as difficult as it's made out to be. I went to a T20 and had a bit above average GPA. I'm smart but not a genius and still feel smarter than a solid chunk of the people I work with. 

It's by no means easy, but the myth of needing to go math competitions -> MIT -> quant just isn't true. You should be able to get a good sense of how difficult getting a job/internship will likely be for you just by working through some of the commonly recommended interview prep material. 

 

I can promise you I am a moron who makes it work. It just takes grit and creative thinking.

"one for the money two for the better green 3 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine" - M.F. Doom
 

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