What do Quant Devs Do?
What the title says. Specifically quant devs at Goldman. Do they write the trading algorithms? Thanks
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I work closely with them. Quant (at least in my space) can have two main roles, researcher and developer. A quant researcher tries to create the models, the logic, etc. of an algorithm. It doesn’t entire have to be a new algorithm from start but more of, “how can I improve xyz within this scenario?”. A quant developer, takes these models and implements it to an actual code while of course considering implication to the rest of the code base. Some folks are a blend of both roles while sometimes there is a clear delineation between roles.
I see you’re in Equities. Would you happen to know what the quants in execution consulting or market structure do? And the comp/exit ops? Thanks
Yup, work closely with them as well. Execution Consulting and market structure are sort of tied with each other. Market structure is the study of how the financial market operate - so the key focus includes; understanding the intricacies between the different venues/exchanges (lit, dark, hidden, SDPs, etc.), intraday volume/spreads/quotes changes of a security, and so on. An Execution consultant attempts to provide context in a given market and tries to help the buy side community better leverage the trading algorithms to reduce transaction cost and improve overall performance. A good simple example is; your buy side client has alpha of 100bps, but if it cost them to trade 50bps - they net 50bps as pnl. An execution consultant should be able to reduce the overall cost and help preserve alpha for the client. As for exit opps - I think the interaction with the buy side gives them plenty of chance to pivot. As for comp, At the junior level it should be similar to other roles but at the senior level I think it starts to vary.
That's the most helpful description I've ever come across. Thanks!I suppose it'd be difficult to move from Execution Consulting to the buy-side into a Quang Research or any alpha-generating roles?
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