I knew about quantitative finance, but I just couldn’t see myself doing risk management or financial modeling day in and day out as my life’s work, no matter how much you pay me. It could be that the pool of people who want to be quants are too small so their wages are higher, most roles require graduate degrees which further filters potential people out. A lot of life major life decisions are made emotionally, even if I love math, does the prospect of applying it to something that doesn’t stir my soul sound appealing? Like you mentioned most people good enough to be a quant didn’t study math for the money, but for the love of it, so naturally many will end up in the most theoretical field they can land in.
I love this comment. My channel is biased towards those who love finance to the point that they don't understand not everyone wants to work in finance or quant finance. I've encouraged people towards other fields which I think surprised people. Enjoying your work is a crucial part of finding a meaningful career.
I did an undergraduate degree in maths from a top UK university. Almost everyone I knew was at least aware of quantitative finance, and many are now getting jobs in it too. I think, however, that the lack of good information about what the jobs actually entail make it difficult for anyone to get into the field. I am currently finishing up a master's in mathematical finance, and I am only now really understanding the various career paths that quants can take.
And as you advance through your career you will discover even more odd specialty areas. Even after doing this for 9 years I still find new paths or refine my definitions of what we're really doing.
i think the lack of information is due to even the firms not really knowing what their jobs entail. they would tell us, "you don't really need to know anything about the finance side, just come work for us and pick up on what you need via textbooks+research papers on the job." this was just over ~10 years ago though, so i don't know if things have changed much since then
@sentralorigin I'd agree with firms not knowing what they hiring. In many ways I'm old school as I still feel finance is the least important skill of a quant however the soft front office jobs now want a strong finance knowledge.
@@DimitriBianco could you tell me some interesting niches/specialty areas you recently discovered? I want to go into something niche for less competition
Hey! I am currently in my first year of a maths BSc in the UK and am interested in doing a master's in mathematical finance or computational finance with hopes of going into quant finance. I have a few questions about the masters programs in the UK, am I able to message you?
Hello Dimitri, I'm Aaron and from Singapore and am heading into my final year of studies as an Applied Math major in NUS, I just wanted to thank you for all your content, I can say that I've watched like 95% of all your videos. Am extremely interested in the quant finance and risk management in the sell-side, hope to land an entry level role but a Msc is also on the horizon. Just want to say thank you and keep making these interesting videos because I literally watch every new one that gets uploaded!
@@DimitriBianco Glad to be the first! Hopefully more people would show their gratitude and appreciation through it! Also, Im currently pursuing the FRM to learn more about the world of risk management as well, hopefully before I graduate.
Omg subscribed immediately. I'm so glad to find someone talking candidly about the issues with the educational pipeline for math/finance/business as a whole
I’m even myself, I dread working with MBAs in the world called “data science”. The fact that the rigor in industry is sucked away in favor of the motto of “just get stuff done fast” then we feel like fish out of water because we are used to making things rigorous, and not just plugging stuff into xgboost or something. I hate how data science is now “interdisciplinary” and now I have to compete for jobs with MBAs who don’t even know a lick of stats and still get hired cause they have this degree which (in my opinion) doesn’t really provide them with any skills and is a degree that people just love for some reason. Like why are MBAs being favored over technical people.
This exact reason is why I'm glad I've spent my career in risk management at a bank. Model building is a rigorous process and everyone has a stem related graduate degree. Communicating technical problems is easy as most managers are also quants. The managers have the more challenging job in communicating that issue to the business side.
@@DimitriBianco in risk management in banking it’s probably also very regulated right? Do you have to do lots of documentation to abide by fair lending etc.?
@prod.kashkari3075 we do. The regulation in a way forces banks to model more rigorously. Right now it seems the standards are lower since the regulators have relaxed. Once another crisis hits we'll see more regulation and better standards again.
Thanks for answering my quesiton Dimitri. That does explain why Quant Finance is so unheard of among math departments. Hopefully it will be something more ubiquitous in the future for math majors.
Yeah the organization I run on my campus helps prepare engineering and CS students to learn the skills they need to apply for quant masters programs. It was really interesting to see the changes in the demographics that occurred vs when I first joined until now. Used to be many finance students with long drawn out python tutorials explaining what a for loop is, now it’s moving towards prepping students for stochastic calculus and other fundamentals so they have a little bit of an understanding what they are getting in to before they start these programs. We use your videos pretty often to help students compile lists of schools to apply to, your content really helps 👍🏼
Same. Even though, I can show that I'm extroverted - Fun, Warm, Approachable and Goofy when I'm out but in reality... I just want to sleep, solve problems/strategies and beep boop.
You bring up a lot of interesting points. I studied Econ-Math in undergrad, and I'm in grad school for Theoretical CS. This summer, I'm working as a quant research intern and I see a ton of Math type people; it's all CS, Applied/Pure Math, or Physics. I think it depends on a lot in the city you work in, type of firm you work at etc. I know some teams/banks/places try to make it seem more "academic" to attract the "mathy" people as my recruiter put it lol. But I doubt this is the norm in many places.
@@ancellery6430 probably not, math for a lot of finance isn’t to hard the most important thing is you have some programming and good mathematical intuition/maturity a lot of the finance specific stuff can be learned quickly on the job.
i just turned 18 and I am going to study the same thing in undergrad. how hard was getting a quant research summer internship? and also did you have other internships as an undergraduate if you don’t mind me asking?
It depends where you work. Most jobs I've seen where people say they are quants are just business analysts labeled as quants. There are actual jobs where research is happening at an academic level. For example, many of my employees are doing research and utilizing textbooks and academic papers. As a published example, look up Agus Sudjianto. He's the head of MRM at Wells Fargo and they publish research as well.
@@rex-xz9ys I mean, I worked as an ML engineer at a credit card company out of undergrad for about 2 years and I did stats-econ research and had some data science internships in undergrad. Important thing if you wanna get your foot in the door is doing a "quanty" kinda major, where you'll gain good math intuition and at least ok programming skills. Obviously, taking financial math classes would be helpful if you really want to do quant finance, but I would not say you need it especially if you want to get an internship, but this highly depends on your background and the company you're interning at as well.
Isn't that a good thing? We wanna keep things niche to keep the competition down. We dont want it to become so mainstream that everyone wants to go into it. Plus, these kids are adding more value to society by becoming engineers
@@081isaac yes as in it's good for us. Imagine if it were to become so mainstream like medicine or engineering that even the boomers know about it and all push their kids to go into quant. It would become saturated and it'd be tougher for all of us.
@@faeancestor maybe like 1% of concern. Anyway it's true - I think the smartest STEM kids should go into engineering, they can actually use their talents to help people indirectly. Quant only helps banks and hedge funds etc. We all win this way
@@VedJoshi.. i wasn't ever talking about business/ humanities students - see how I was only referencing STEM students. I was talking about the average engineering student who blindly goes into engineering because that's the only STEM career they and their parents know about. Quant is defo not on the average STEM student's radar, hence why Dmitri made this video. We dont need to talk about business majors because quant is closed off to them anyway 'Mainstream for applied mathematicians' means it's not mainstream
I might be able to provide some insight into the mathematical undergrad mindset, since i'm currently finishing up my mathematics bachelors and will go on to study quant finance next semester. For one is mathematics much closer to (other) natural sciences than to social sciences like economics, therefor i'd argue that someone interested in mathematics that much that they want to study it might be much more likely to be also interested in engineering or physics or chemistry (or mathematics) etc than in finance as a career. On the other hand are students that have the goal of quant finance even before deciding on an undergrad probably much more likely to study finance or economics with a focus on mathematical topics, since it is the much easier way (IMO) to get to the masters program and arguably still about as good of a foundation for the masters as math with little to no economics/finance. So mathematics students don't want to go into economics and future quant students don't want to go into mathematics.
I am a student at UPenn, here a fairly large amount of people in wharton and the engineering school talk about quant finance. These people aim for the top firms like HRT and JS and a fair amount of them are successful, but I do think the interview process is significantly harder than most people are capable of passing realistically. I personally am studying in CS and aiming for software engineering roles instead, as the hiring bar seems to be a lot lower. Also, I noticed that you are from DFW lol that's dope, I grew up in Plano!
Thank you for this video. I am dual majoring in mathematics and mechanical engineering and minoring in computer science as an undergrad and then planning on going to grad school for statistics with the intent of getting into quant finance. I originally went into college as a finance major, but it was not until later that I realized I could apply my love for math to finance. Your videos have been instrumental in my college journey and have given me a better idea of what I want to do after school
I think one of the major reasons is also that many Math PhDs don't want to go to Quant Finance. Here at Stony Brook we also have many Math majors but very few want to go into Quant. Many of them want to continue research in their niche.
Hi Dimitri, I just wanted to let you know I love the videos, thanks for the information. As for discoverability, I think Quants are already well known for some reason to "CS kids" (think egotistical nerd stereotype). I go to a good US school (UCLA) and Im a math and econ major with a cs minor, while only about 60% of my peers in the math *undergrad* department know what Quant Finance is, a lot higher proportion of CS majors do for some reason. I only recently fell into wanting to become a (Quant) Trader, but upon inspecting LinkedIn, it seems there are many people who have already set themselves up for a lavish career due to their internships at Valkyrie Trading, Meta, AND Citadel (yes these people are plenty at my school, most of which are Asian-Internationals). For this reason I'm now very hesitant to get into the field due to lackluster experience. Is there any way to leverage my Math skills to stand out in what seems to me like a very competitive industry to recruit for?
This will be an unpopular opinion but being a trader isn't something taught. Fast thinkers are good at trading and many of them come from prestigious schools where the degree isn't too important. If you want to do quant dev (implementation) then using great CS and math skills will set you apart. If you want to be a quant, then focus on math and statistics as the ability to build models is the main goal. Don't worry about where everyone is in their journey. I started with a finance undergrad and had to catch up before I could really start my graduate learning. I'm now further ahead in career terms just from focusing on what I find interesting.
Top quant firms do recruit math and cs majors aggressively from top universities like MIT, Harvard, CMU, Princeton etc... Since they pay so well, they are extremely selective. You have to be really good to even have a chance to be interviewed and get an internship. People I know who got in are those who got medals in international math olympiad. If they are lucky to be employed, they can look forward to a basic starting salary of $300K and close to $500K with bonus included in the very first year. It's an insane amount of money.
just wanted to reassure u what ur doing is working, also a hs student planning to try to do as much math as i can in college to go into finance, think the main problem among peers i see is ppl underestimating the importance of pure math versus applied math
As an engineering student that recently heard about these areas, I just want to say thank you for clearing up my hopes that quant finance really is about the math. I saw a job listing that boasted that, but was very critical. I don't want to end up doing trading, researching companies to invest in or something like that.
A problem for a lot of people who enjoy maths is that they are not taught to communicate. They don’t study negotiations, linguistics, philosophy or other mechanisms of communication of our millennia long human nature. 8:40. So if you find someone who can talk well in quant that’s a bonus.
Currently @ a MFE program who recently got a new director (yea that one). Had the opportunity to sit in on 2/3 potential directors and it was really interesting to hear how they all wanted to increase the diversity of the MFE program, which you touched upon. Couple of Questions: 1) What has led to the shift away from Americans being admitted into top MFE programs? When talking to my old QF professor, he talked about how our MFE program used to be a lot more American but that obviously isn't the case anymore. He chalked it up to the general distaste for finance following '08 which doesn't really feel rigorous. 2) Could you explain why it's desirable for MFE programs to have more diversity, especially wrt more American students and students from underrepresented populations? 3) If you were to admit these students, wouldn't that lower the rigor of the program? This is based on my personal experience American students in my program are technically weaker in aspects such math/stats/cs background compared to international Chinese/Indian students. Appreciate all the work you put out and know you have a couple of fans here :)
I believe the biggest issue when it comes to looking at The West (mainly Americans) vs East (primarily Central to East Asia) is that the cultures are so drastically different. For China, their culture for a very very long time has been very academic based and about the overall lifting of competency of their citizens to create a harmonic society, where as America has never and will never be that for the forseeable future. This has caused issues where many of schools compulsory schools (k-12) have terrible STEM programs, no AP or IB programs and the education is awful at best. American school systems are also Pay-to-learn. The higher the property tax/average income an area has, the better teachers and programs, which cuts down the pool of candidates significantly. I also think that the play to shift to more "American friendly" rhetoric is based on the heels that there could be a future where American Politics gets heavy handed and bands Chinese International students, which makes up a majority of post-graduate revenue for schools. And with India not really "siding" with the US, that could also be an issue. In regards to rigor, I think even if people slip through the admissions, if the teachers keep the rigor the same, we will be able to see more so what exactly is lacking in the american education system, and actually begin to address those issues, which will cause the level of competence to reach back up over time.
Forget about math grads, even Comp Science, and Data Science students haven't discovered Quant Finance lol😂, ...... they'll do ML project related to Loan default, but aren't aware that it's known as Credit Risk Modeling. 😅
Hi Dimitri, I am a business engineering student from Chile. I go to USM, Universidad Santa María, which is a university focused on engineers. I didn't know I wanted to learn quant finance until very recently because there was virtually zero content from either my professors or my classes. One of my professors did know about it and he is trying to go the data science route for people interested. I think you could have an impact in other countries with your ideas.
@@felipeCL73 The level of rigour in that master's is not anywhere near to what Dimitri tells us a master's should have. It could bootstrap my career into Chile's industry, but I can't see how would I be able to compete with math majors with MFEs in the US.
As someone who studied engineering I never even knew that math had so many avenues that you can go into honestly thought that you either had to go into Insurance or become a math teacher never even knew about quant finance. To be honest many people see working at these big banks as soul crushing and having to put up with alot of the corporate BS. Many in math and engineering just want to be paid decently, have a good work-life balance and work on problems all day because that is what they enjoy. With all these people in investment banking on youtube talking about working 12 hour days and barely having time outside of work it creates a negative image on the banking industry as a whole since they are the main voices in the finance sector
Exactly! One of the biggest secrets is quant finance at a bank. You'll make 6 figures and most, especially large regional banks want you to have a work life balance.
@@DimitriBianco Thanks to you it has changed my perspective a lot and you have a quality channel with great information. Engineers and math majors in my opinion can pretty much work in any quantitative field and would be a competitive hire anywhere. I think another factor that is left out is that many have to take on more debt and schooling to obtain a masters degree and may be well into $100K in student loan debt which is a major deterrent
i was under the impression we all knew about it, but just weren't interested. firms would always try to poach us out of our PhD programs to just go directly work for them but we wanted to go into academic research, not make money. but then some of us gave in to the attraction of money and "sold out" or had no choice because we didn't get the post-doc position we wanted and just badly needed the money so would sign a X-year contract as a means to an end then immediately depart afterwards to try and pursue what we actually wanted to in the first place
I think the size and location of the university makes a big difference. Small schools and schools farther away from financially markets don't get poached as they aren't viewed as target schools.
Some years ago I heard that some hedge funds preferred physicists or engineers with strong math background (like the graduates from the french top engineering schools (Polytechnique, Mines Paris, ...)) over pure mathematicians because they are more inclined to solve concrete problems.
Honestly, I am trying to go in Quant cause Math is actually pretty fun. Either that or AI. The money is definitely a factor, but I like math and comp sci, I am pursuing a double bachelor in math and computer science. Hopefully one of the two avenue gets me somewhere.
I got a math degree and a programming degree but yeah I only looked into it recently, finance is only a bit a hobby currently, never heard before even of quant since few months ago, they all said go into engineering.
I did my master in pure math with minor in theoretical physics in Europe, but when I talk to people in the US graduating from math about exciting stuffs in mathematics, they often say that in the US, one studies math "mostly in order to become math teachers" and they reportedly have the impression, the math education in Europe is quite different cuz "you guys really wanna become mathematicians" lol. I guess the bold (and to some derogatory) claim regarding math teacher is more applicable to US undergrad math than to graduate schools, since the US has some of the top tier graduate programs in mathematics. Still, since I just discovered the channel recently and might not have grasped the whole view yet: didn't you also mention in one other video that master's degree in math is less favored comparing to master's degree in certain majors?
I think it might also be because the motivation for a lot of math majors to even study math is to prepare themselves for graduate education. I haven’t really heard of many people who study pure math to eventually go into the industry. But maybe the motivation to even study the subject is for them to go into grad school and do PhDs, so the thought of quant doesn’t even get pitched to them. Even math depts themselves setup REUs and other seminars for undergrads to introduce them to grad school and prepare them for academia, more so than industry. I think it’s interesting how this is not the case with statistics departments. They generally try and prepare them for industry.
I mean, most of the math programs I’ve seen have different concentrations like computation, economics, applied math, actuarial science, etc. Hell most the universities I’ve talked to encourages students to not go for pure math
I’m studying Mechanical Engineering but I realized that it’s probably not what I would like to do for the rest of my life. I wonder if it’s possible to switch to a Quantitative Finance career.
because there are better career paths for math students. Quant finance requires graduate degree, getting into competitive mfe program, or phd in math which requires more investment. Then there are a few quant jobs that are highly competitive in contrast to data science or programming. The latter two don't necessarily require a graduate degree or going to a top college.
Hi just came across this TH-cam channel and it seems super cool! I'm going into my undergrad this upcoming fall in a top university in Canada hoping to study Math and Stats and possibly CS too. When applying to my schools I was pretty lost to begin with. I didn't know what I wanted to do in my future, but at the time all I knew is that I enjoyed math, even if I was never EXTREMLY good at it, it was just something I had fun with and I felt like I could never get bored of it! Thats why I applied to math programs and fortunately I was accepted into them. My question to you is, how should I best "optimize" my undergrad to land a job after possibly after graduating or maybe after getting a Masters in the field of Quant Finance or maybe Data Science? I fell as though these fields interest me the most because the combine my interests well (math, cs and finance).
The best way to optimize is to read about the industry and see what math topics interest you the most. Then select your electives towards those interesting topics. People tend to end up in a career based on their classes taken in school
I've recently just graduated from Computer Science BSc, specialising in Data Science. Nonetheless, brief advice, would it be more feasible to take a masters (1 year) in Artificial Intelligence or Quant Finance, or 2 years of working in a data analyst job whilst self-studying Quant and Finance. During my free time in Bachelors, I had taken multiple research into finance and how financial reports are evaluated etc by joining societies and multiple research online. I had been taking trading competitions which had interested me. Preferably I'd like to not take a masters if going to get a job in data analyst for 2 years and self-study is possible and later on transitioning into a Quant role without a masters.
You have to have a masters as it's a base requirement. Also the difference in skills between a financial analyst and a quant is like a PE teacher vs a professional baseball player.
Hello Dimitry, this is probably covered in some other video already, but I was wondering the reason(s) behind switching from MS in Financial Engineering to MS in Applied Economics? (excuse my linkedin stalking)
I'm going back to school to finish my degree (31yo AA female). The plan is Statistics, with minor in Finance and Computer Science. Am I on the right path? Will my age matter? I'm unnaturally invested in this 😅
The problem is that too many bullshitty undergrads want to be quants. (Think psych, business, xyz studies.) That drowns out the few people who actually have a technical background.
I am in Germany, had been in an energy firm's interview for a quant role. The interviewer has an engineering background but seems utterly disinterested in maths, but only in Python.
Being a Quant is kind of boring. I got an applied math Ph.D. but, the kind of things they do at my current job is so much more interesting than Financial Engineering. Despite being a popular theoretical equation, you probably won't be doing numerically intense computation with Black Scholes in Quant Finance. Also, you probably won't learn good programming habits as a math guy in quant finance. You won't learn how to use data structures and algorithms or object-oriented programming. Maybe Comp Sci people are more appreciated than mathematicians. P.S. I even applied to Dimitri's company in Texas, but they reject me. I got a really nice Letter from Dimitri stating that they don't want an applied math ph.d. with high comp sci knowledge and finance theory. Oh well, I live in a much nicer area in California now and get 6 figures and do much more interesting work for NASA and other famous robotics companies. To my understanding, Dimitri, you don't appreciate Ph.D's right? Because you were a master's student who found it hard to get a job and so want to give the little guy a chance and not necessarily the most qualified people? You admitted it yourself that industry jobs kind of hates people from academia no? So what's all the crying about trying to find talent when there is such a thing as discriminating against people who were academics?
They don't want applied math phd with comp sci and financial knowledge? What they want?😊 Did Dimitri say what his firm wants in the letter? I am eager to know what they actually want.
Hi Dmitri. I'm going to be a junior in high school in three months and was wondering what majors you would recommend to people with the goal of becoming a quant or something similar. I was also wondering if you recommend any activities I could do right now that could help me down the line? Thank you.
I have a degree in mathematics/economics but i dont have any coding skills, what would be enough demonstration enough post degree to become a quant? I feel like self taught certs have lost their luster
I have a video coming out soon on the courses you should take for an undergrad. I would try to find a intro to python course. Or at minimum a statistics or econometrics course that uses a programming language.
@@DimitriBianco I have an undergrad in math and know c++ or object oriented programming very well. where do I apply for quant jobs? I could use a recommendation ☺
What do you think about Baruch's Bachelor of Science in Financial Mathematics (BSFM) program? How many universities have undergraduate quant finance programs?
are actuaries not quants? i think there are a lot more firms that can use quants than is apparent, asset managers, commodities firms, power generators, oil & gas. insurance
I'm a High school student do you think in next 8 years still Do I have high chance to get a job as quant and get a sponsorship for visa? I'm not us citizen
Hey Dimitri, I'm an undergraduate starting my third year of my Math degree (just switched from Software Engineering) who has interests mainly in pure mathematics. Do you think this would be a problem if I wanted to get a job in finance?
It sounds to me like there genuinely isn't a large market for new Quants. Now I honestly don't really know here, but just from your description of the scalability of their work, and their high price tag, it sounds as if becoming a Quant is inherently quite difficult, and competitive. I don't know if something that is already quite difficult and competitive needs a lot of advertising. I mean sure, its nice to increase the size of the talent pool you pick from, but for the students who are aiming to define their career, most to aim at Quant would not be likely to make it into an actual Quant position correct?
It is very competitive however the majority of the US market is being filled by internationals. Math students from China and India are very interested in these careers as I think they see that it is less competitive with American's.
@@DimitriBianco I guess I don't fully understand if that is a problem or not, or why you seem to be suggesting that it would be better (or just nice?) to have more Americans working those positions? Is there a real reason to want these positions filled by Americans vs. more mathematically focused foreign students?
Hi, so "traditional" quants who specialize in derivative pricing and stochastic calculus work primarily in the buyside or sell side for a bank or hedge fund? Which proportion of jobs is higher ?
I am wanting to get into a new quantitative finance degree at Laval university , Quebec , Canada. But i am not sure if it is good? Should i just do a math degree?
Math is only one part of the skillset though a main part. Quant finance gives a wider range of the required skills however math makes you more of a specialist. There is no perfect degree but you should consider all the skills required and find a degree that helps you meet that.
Hey Dimitri, I am a software engineer working with traders at a big investment bank in the UK. I have been coding for a long while, and I would say I am pretty good at it. I would like to start a company of my own, and I would like it to be a quant finance/research firm (kind of like G-Research - they're pretty big in the UK). I know it's a long shot, but it is something I'm really passionate about. What sort of advice would you give to someone trying to start a quant finance/research firm? Thanks a lot!
I won't specifically answer this because I have a guest interview coming out soon from someone who started their own hedge fund and we discuss some of the issues with it. It should provide more insight than me alone.
Hi Dimitri! Could you make a video on how to move from middle/back office quant to front office quant? I have only two years of quant experience and have only found opportunities in middle/back office (I currently work as a market risk model validator), but my dream is to be a front office quant, since in that kind of positions the technical side is much more focused on stochastic calculus and not so much on statistics and data science. However, I have the feeling that as I gain more experience in the back office it will be more and more difficult to find opportunities in the front office. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. By the way, I love your content. Best regards!
I think what you're looking for is sell side vs buy side (investing). The longer you are in one area it does become harder to switch. If you want to switch I would just apply to buy side jobs but make sure you list on your resume the skills that they have on the job postings. As for stochastic calculus, it's really just probability and statistics. The buy side isn't as technical as everyone tries to make it. Often switching from one area to another does help with personal interests however there are many areas on both the buy side and sell side.
Hii, i am from India and i have a undergrad degree in mathematics, and i found this career path recently and i am very excited to explore this field, i have interest in mathematics, finance and programming. I am going to take a master's degree in mathematics & computing and also a Mtech degree in computer science and i will finish CFA also, since here in India there are not many options in cirtification in quantitative finance & trading. Can you please tell me with these degrees from a high level institute like IIT can i place a job into hfts...or hedge funds....?
Heyyy i am planning on taking bsc economics and mathematics with python,c++ and r programing Is it good enough to be a quant Or should i choose something else like stats
This is a question for anyone. I’m currently doing A Bachelors in Data Science and once I complete it I want to venture into finance. I have 4 choices I’m lining up for my masters (CS, DataS, AI, Quant F) What would be the best overall choice.
Would really love to hear on how you think this whole AI boom is going to change the landscape of quant finance? Like do you think less people will be required to do intensive coding or maybe concentrate on other areas? Looking forward to your insights.
I knew about quantitative finance, but I just couldn’t see myself doing risk management or financial modeling day in and day out as my life’s work, no matter how much you pay me. It could be that the pool of people who want to be quants are too small so their wages are higher, most roles require graduate degrees which further filters potential people out. A lot of life major life decisions are made emotionally, even if I love math, does the prospect of applying it to something that doesn’t stir my soul sound appealing? Like you mentioned most people good enough to be a quant didn’t study math for the money, but for the love of it, so naturally many will end up in the most theoretical field they can land in.
I love this comment. My channel is biased towards those who love finance to the point that they don't understand not everyone wants to work in finance or quant finance. I've encouraged people towards other fields which I think surprised people. Enjoying your work is a crucial part of finding a meaningful career.
I did an undergraduate degree in maths from a top UK university. Almost everyone I knew was at least aware of quantitative finance, and many are now getting jobs in it too. I think, however, that the lack of good information about what the jobs actually entail make it difficult for anyone to get into the field. I am currently finishing up a master's in mathematical finance, and I am only now really understanding the various career paths that quants can take.
And as you advance through your career you will discover even more odd specialty areas. Even after doing this for 9 years I still find new paths or refine my definitions of what we're really doing.
i think the lack of information is due to even the firms not really knowing what their jobs entail. they would tell us, "you don't really need to know anything about the finance side, just come work for us and pick up on what you need via textbooks+research papers on the job." this was just over ~10 years ago though, so i don't know if things have changed much since then
@sentralorigin I'd agree with firms not knowing what they hiring. In many ways I'm old school as I still feel finance is the least important skill of a quant however the soft front office jobs now want a strong finance knowledge.
@@DimitriBianco could you tell me some interesting niches/specialty areas you recently discovered? I want to go into something niche for less competition
Hey! I am currently in my first year of a maths BSc in the UK and am interested in doing a master's in mathematical finance or computational finance with hopes of going into quant finance. I have a few questions about the masters programs in the UK, am I able to message you?
Hello Dimitri, I'm Aaron and from Singapore and am heading into my final year of studies as an Applied Math major in NUS, I just wanted to thank you for all your content, I can say that I've watched like 95% of all your videos. Am extremely interested in the quant finance and risk management in the sell-side, hope to land an entry level role but a Msc is also on the horizon. Just want to say thank you and keep making these interesting videos because I literally watch every new one that gets uploaded!
Thanks! You are the first person to use the "thanks" feature on TH-cam for my channel.
I'm happy to hear the content has been helpful.
@@DimitriBianco Glad to be the first! Hopefully more people would show their gratitude and appreciation through it! Also, Im currently pursuing the FRM to learn more about the world of risk management as well, hopefully before I graduate.
Omg subscribed immediately. I'm so glad to find someone talking candidly about the issues with the educational pipeline for math/finance/business as a whole
I’m even myself, I dread working with MBAs in the world called “data science”. The fact that the rigor in industry is sucked away in favor of the motto of “just get stuff done fast” then we feel like fish out of water because we are used to making things rigorous, and not just plugging stuff into xgboost or something. I hate how data science is now “interdisciplinary” and now I have to compete for jobs with MBAs who don’t even know a lick of stats and still get hired cause they have this degree which (in my opinion) doesn’t really provide them with any skills and is a degree that people just love for some reason. Like why are MBAs being favored over technical people.
This exact reason is why I'm glad I've spent my career in risk management at a bank. Model building is a rigorous process and everyone has a stem related graduate degree. Communicating technical problems is easy as most managers are also quants. The managers have the more challenging job in communicating that issue to the business side.
@@DimitriBianco in risk management in banking it’s probably also very regulated right? Do you have to do lots of documentation to abide by fair lending etc.?
@prod.kashkari3075 we do. The regulation in a way forces banks to model more rigorously. Right now it seems the standards are lower since the regulators have relaxed. Once another crisis hits we'll see more regulation and better standards again.
Thanks for answering my quesiton Dimitri. That does explain why Quant Finance is so unheard of among math departments. Hopefully it will be something more ubiquitous in the future for math majors.
Yeah the organization I run on my campus helps prepare engineering and CS students to learn the skills they need to apply for quant masters programs. It was really interesting to see the changes in the demographics that occurred vs when I first joined until now. Used to be many finance students with long drawn out python tutorials explaining what a for loop is, now it’s moving towards prepping students for stochastic calculus and other fundamentals so they have a little bit of an understanding what they are getting in to before they start these programs. We use your videos pretty often to help students compile lists of schools to apply to, your content really helps 👍🏼
What's your org name
Whats the organization?
Same.
Even though, I can show that I'm extroverted - Fun, Warm, Approachable and Goofy when I'm out but in reality... I just want to sleep, solve problems/strategies and beep boop.
Thanks for the support!
You bring up a lot of interesting points. I studied Econ-Math in undergrad, and I'm in grad school for Theoretical CS. This summer, I'm working as a quant research intern and I see a ton of Math type people; it's all CS, Applied/Pure Math, or Physics. I think it depends on a lot in the city you work in, type of firm you work at etc. I know some teams/banks/places try to make it seem more "academic" to attract the "mathy" people as my recruiter put it lol. But I doubt this is the norm in many places.
do you think a cs+linguistics degree would be significantly different?
@@ancellery6430 probably not, math for a lot of finance isn’t to hard the most important thing is you have some programming and good mathematical intuition/maturity a lot of the finance specific stuff can be learned quickly on the job.
i just turned 18 and I am going to study the same thing in undergrad. how hard was getting a quant research summer internship? and also did you have other internships as an undergraduate if you don’t mind me asking?
It depends where you work. Most jobs I've seen where people say they are quants are just business analysts labeled as quants. There are actual jobs where research is happening at an academic level. For example, many of my employees are doing research and utilizing textbooks and academic papers. As a published example, look up Agus Sudjianto. He's the head of MRM at Wells Fargo and they publish research as well.
@@rex-xz9ys I mean, I worked as an ML engineer at a credit card company out of undergrad for about 2 years and I did stats-econ research and had some data science internships in undergrad. Important thing if you wanna get your foot in the door is doing a "quanty" kinda major, where you'll gain good math intuition and at least ok programming skills. Obviously, taking financial math classes would be helpful if you really want to do quant finance, but I would not say you need it especially if you want to get an internship, but this highly depends on your background and the company you're interning at as well.
Isn't that a good thing? We wanna keep things niche to keep the competition down. We dont want it to become so mainstream that everyone wants to go into it.
Plus, these kids are adding more value to society by becoming engineers
what concern do you have for social value?
good as in specifically for you? sure
morally no, competition helps the field develop better
@@081isaac yes as in it's good for us. Imagine if it were to become so mainstream like medicine or engineering that even the boomers know about it and all push their kids to go into quant. It would become saturated and it'd be tougher for all of us.
@@faeancestor maybe like 1% of concern. Anyway it's true - I think the smartest STEM kids should go into engineering, they can actually use their talents to help people indirectly. Quant only helps banks and hedge funds etc. We all win this way
@@VedJoshi.. i wasn't ever talking about business/ humanities students - see how I was only referencing STEM students. I was talking about the average engineering student who blindly goes into engineering because that's the only STEM career they and their parents know about. Quant is defo not on the average STEM student's radar, hence why Dmitri made this video. We dont need to talk about business majors because quant is closed off to them anyway
'Mainstream for applied mathematicians' means it's not mainstream
I might be able to provide some insight into the mathematical undergrad mindset, since i'm currently finishing up my mathematics bachelors and will go on to study quant finance next semester.
For one is mathematics much closer to (other) natural sciences than to social sciences like economics, therefor i'd argue that someone interested in mathematics that much that they want to study it might be much more likely to be also interested in engineering or physics or chemistry (or mathematics) etc than in finance as a career.
On the other hand are students that have the goal of quant finance even before deciding on an undergrad probably much more likely to study finance or economics with a focus on mathematical topics, since it is the much easier way (IMO) to get to the masters program and arguably still about as good of a foundation for the masters as math with little to no economics/finance.
So mathematics students don't want to go into economics and future quant students don't want to go into mathematics.
I am a student at UPenn, here a fairly large amount of people in wharton and the engineering school talk about quant finance. These people aim for the top firms like HRT and JS and a fair amount of them are successful, but I do think the interview process is significantly harder than most people are capable of passing realistically. I personally am studying in CS and aiming for software engineering roles instead, as the hiring bar seems to be a lot lower. Also, I noticed that you are from DFW lol that's dope, I grew up in Plano!
Thank you for this video. I am dual majoring in mathematics and mechanical engineering and minoring in computer science as an undergrad and then planning on going to grad school for statistics with the intent of getting into quant finance. I originally went into college as a finance major, but it was not until later that I realized I could apply my love for math to finance. Your videos have been instrumental in my college journey and have given me a better idea of what I want to do after school
Excellent choice/switch, the engineering degree is going to be much more respected in finance than the finance degree especially for quants.
I think one of the major reasons is also that many Math PhDs don't want to go to Quant Finance. Here at Stony Brook we also have many Math majors but very few want to go into Quant. Many of them want to continue research in their niche.
How is the stony qf program? i currently go to baruch, junior. Wanna know more about admissions and such.
Have you seen my review on it?
th-cam.com/video/-E5SCudOe2g/w-d-xo.html
I completely understand that perspective. Often I wish I could just do interesting research in stationarity.
Hi Dimitri,
I just wanted to let you know I love the videos, thanks for the information. As for discoverability, I think Quants are already well known for some reason to "CS kids" (think egotistical nerd stereotype). I go to a good US school (UCLA) and Im a math and econ major with a cs minor, while only about 60% of my peers in the math *undergrad* department know what Quant Finance is, a lot higher proportion of CS majors do for some reason. I only recently fell into wanting to become a (Quant) Trader, but upon inspecting LinkedIn, it seems there are many people who have already set themselves up for a lavish career due to their internships at Valkyrie Trading, Meta, AND Citadel (yes these people are plenty at my school, most of which are Asian-Internationals). For this reason I'm now very hesitant to get into the field due to lackluster experience. Is there any way to leverage my Math skills to stand out in what seems to me like a very competitive industry to recruit for?
This will be an unpopular opinion but being a trader isn't something taught. Fast thinkers are good at trading and many of them come from prestigious schools where the degree isn't too important. If you want to do quant dev (implementation) then using great CS and math skills will set you apart. If you want to be a quant, then focus on math and statistics as the ability to build models is the main goal.
Don't worry about where everyone is in their journey. I started with a finance undergrad and had to catch up before I could really start my graduate learning. I'm now further ahead in career terms just from focusing on what I find interesting.
Top quant firms do recruit math and cs majors aggressively from top universities like MIT, Harvard, CMU, Princeton etc... Since they pay so well, they are extremely selective. You have to be really good to even have a chance to be interviewed and get an internship.
People I know who got in are those who got medals in international math olympiad. If they are lucky to be employed, they can look forward to a basic starting salary of $300K and close to $500K with bonus included in the very first year. It's an insane amount of money.
Can confirm that they do pay that well
just wanted to reassure u what ur doing is working, also a hs student planning to try to do as much math as i can in college to go into finance, think the main problem among peers i see is ppl underestimating the importance of pure math versus applied math
As an engineering student that recently heard about these areas, I just want to say thank you for clearing up my hopes that quant finance really is about the math. I saw a job listing that boasted that, but was very critical. I don't want to end up doing trading, researching companies to invest in or something like that.
I would enjoy hearing you discuss more about the industry.
A problem for a lot of people who enjoy maths is that they are not taught to communicate. They don’t study negotiations, linguistics, philosophy or other mechanisms of communication of our millennia long human nature. 8:40. So if you find someone who can talk well in quant that’s a bonus.
9:40 thank goodness.
Currently @ a MFE program who recently got a new director (yea that one). Had the opportunity to sit in on 2/3 potential directors and it was really interesting to hear how they all wanted to increase the diversity of the MFE program, which you touched upon.
Couple of Questions:
1) What has led to the shift away from Americans being admitted into top MFE programs? When talking to my old QF professor, he talked about how our MFE program used to be a lot more American but that obviously isn't the case anymore. He chalked it up to the general distaste for finance following '08 which doesn't really feel rigorous.
2) Could you explain why it's desirable for MFE programs to have more diversity, especially wrt more American students and students from underrepresented populations?
3) If you were to admit these students, wouldn't that lower the rigor of the program? This is based on my personal experience American students in my program are technically weaker in aspects such math/stats/cs background compared to international Chinese/Indian students.
Appreciate all the work you put out and know you have a couple of fans here :)
I believe the biggest issue when it comes to looking at The West (mainly Americans) vs East (primarily Central to East Asia) is that the cultures are so drastically different. For China, their culture for a very very long time has been very academic based and about the overall lifting of competency of their citizens to create a harmonic society, where as America has never and will never be that for the forseeable future. This has caused issues where many of schools compulsory schools (k-12) have terrible STEM programs, no AP or IB programs and the education is awful at best. American school systems are also Pay-to-learn. The higher the property tax/average income an area has, the better teachers and programs, which cuts down the pool of candidates significantly.
I also think that the play to shift to more "American friendly" rhetoric is based on the heels that there could be a future where American Politics gets heavy handed and bands Chinese International students, which makes up a majority of post-graduate revenue for schools. And with India not really "siding" with the US, that could also be an issue.
In regards to rigor, I think even if people slip through the admissions, if the teachers keep the rigor the same, we will be able to see more so what exactly is lacking in the american education system, and actually begin to address those issues, which will cause the level of competence to reach back up over time.
Forget about math grads, even Comp Science, and Data Science students haven't discovered Quant Finance lol😂, ...... they'll do ML project related to Loan default, but aren't aware that it's known as Credit Risk Modeling. 😅
Hi Dimitri, I am a business engineering student from Chile. I go to USM, Universidad Santa María, which is a university focused on engineers. I didn't know I wanted to learn quant finance until very recently because there was virtually zero content from either my professors or my classes. One of my professors did know about it and he is trying to go the data science route for people interested. I think you could have an impact in other countries with your ideas.
South America and to be catching on in the last few years. I've been getting more subscribers and questions from Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.
@@felipeCL73 The level of rigour in that master's is not anywhere near to what Dimitri tells us a master's should have. It could bootstrap my career into Chile's industry, but I can't see how would I be able to compete with math majors with MFEs in the US.
Bro, I'm from Chile, same career, same comment!
As someone who studied engineering I never even knew that math had so many avenues that you can go into honestly thought that you either had to go into Insurance or become a math teacher never even knew about quant finance.
To be honest many people see working at these big banks as soul crushing and having to put up with alot of the corporate BS. Many in math and engineering just want to be paid decently, have a good work-life balance and work on problems all day because that is what they enjoy. With all these people in investment banking on youtube talking about working 12 hour days and barely having time outside of work it creates a negative image on the banking industry as a whole since they are the main voices in the finance sector
Exactly! One of the biggest secrets is quant finance at a bank. You'll make 6 figures and most, especially large regional banks want you to have a work life balance.
@@DimitriBianco Thanks to you it has changed my perspective a lot and you have a quality channel with great information.
Engineers and math majors in my opinion can pretty much work in any quantitative field and would be a competitive hire anywhere.
I think another factor that is left out is that many have to take on more debt and schooling to obtain a masters degree and may be well into $100K in student loan debt which is a major deterrent
@Simba365 that is definitely a risk. My wife and I took on $160k for grad school to get two masters. Luckily we paid it off in 5 years.
I'm a Bsc Financial Mathematics student, and I'm from South Africa
i was under the impression we all knew about it, but just weren't interested. firms would always try to poach us out of our PhD programs to just go directly work for them but we wanted to go into academic research, not make money. but then some of us gave in to the attraction of money and "sold out" or had no choice because we didn't get the post-doc position we wanted and just badly needed the money so would sign a X-year contract as a means to an end then immediately depart afterwards to try and pursue what we actually wanted to in the first place
I think the size and location of the university makes a big difference. Small schools and schools farther away from financially markets don't get poached as they aren't viewed as target schools.
Some years ago I heard that some hedge funds preferred physicists or engineers with strong math background (like the graduates from the french top engineering schools (Polytechnique, Mines Paris, ...)) over pure mathematicians because they are more inclined to solve concrete problems.
Honestly, I am trying to go in Quant cause Math is actually pretty fun. Either that or AI.
The money is definitely a factor, but I like math and comp sci, I am pursuing a double bachelor in math and computer science. Hopefully one of the two avenue gets me somewhere.
I got a math degree and a programming degree but yeah I only looked into it recently, finance is only a bit a hobby currently, never heard before even of quant since few months ago, they all said go into engineering.
MFE from Temple and have been dealing with a LOT of Impostor Syndrome
For me it's never gone away. It just comes and goes at different levels of intensity.
@@DimitriBianco thank you
I did my master in pure math with minor in theoretical physics in Europe, but when I talk to people in the US graduating from math about exciting stuffs in mathematics, they often say that in the US, one studies math "mostly in order to become math teachers" and they reportedly have the impression, the math education in Europe is quite different cuz "you guys really wanna become mathematicians" lol.
I guess the bold (and to some derogatory) claim regarding math teacher is more applicable to US undergrad math than to graduate schools, since the US has some of the top tier graduate programs in mathematics. Still, since I just discovered the channel recently and might not have grasped the whole view yet: didn't you also mention in one other video that master's degree in math is less favored comparing to master's degree in certain majors?
At top universities like top 10 schools everyone knows about quant and everyone wants in at the top hedge funds
Most math majors are unaware of Quant finance and actuary
I think it might also be because the motivation for a lot of math majors to even study math is to prepare themselves for graduate education. I haven’t really heard of many people who study pure math to eventually go into the industry. But maybe the motivation to even study the subject is for them to go into grad school and do PhDs, so the thought of quant doesn’t even get pitched to them. Even math depts themselves setup REUs and other seminars for undergrads to introduce them to grad school and prepare them for academia, more so than industry.
I think it’s interesting how this is not the case with statistics departments. They generally try and prepare them for industry.
I mean, most of the math programs I’ve seen have different concentrations like computation, economics, applied math, actuarial science, etc. Hell most the universities I’ve talked to encourages students to not go for pure math
I’m studying Mechanical Engineering but I realized that it’s probably not what I would like to do for the rest of my life. I wonder if it’s possible to switch to a Quantitative Finance career.
It is possible to switch. When I was in a quant masters most of the students had a range of engineering backgrounds.
umich has a bs/ms quant specification for math majors
because there are better career paths for math students. Quant finance requires graduate degree, getting into competitive mfe program, or phd in math which requires more investment. Then there are a few quant jobs that are highly competitive in contrast to data science or programming. The latter two don't necessarily require a graduate degree or going to a top college.
I'm a software developer with experience in Embedded systems and web application. I'm planning to switch to quantitive developer
Hey, have you found any useful course for quant developer?
you're really fun to listen to
Thanks
Hi just came across this TH-cam channel and it seems super cool! I'm going into my undergrad this upcoming fall in a top university in Canada hoping to study Math and Stats and possibly CS too. When applying to my schools I was pretty lost to begin with. I didn't know what I wanted to do in my future, but at the time all I knew is that I enjoyed math, even if I was never EXTREMLY good at it, it was just something I had fun with and I felt like I could never get bored of it! Thats why I applied to math programs and fortunately I was accepted into them. My question to you is, how should I best "optimize" my undergrad to land a job after possibly after graduating or maybe after getting a Masters in the field of Quant Finance or maybe Data Science? I fell as though these fields interest me the most because the combine my interests well (math, cs and finance).
The best way to optimize is to read about the industry and see what math topics interest you the most. Then select your electives towards those interesting topics. People tend to end up in a career based on their classes taken in school
I've recently just graduated from Computer Science BSc, specialising in Data Science. Nonetheless, brief advice, would it be more feasible to take a masters (1 year) in Artificial Intelligence or Quant Finance, or 2 years of working in a data analyst job whilst self-studying Quant and Finance. During my free time in Bachelors, I had taken multiple research into finance and how financial reports are evaluated etc by joining societies and multiple research online. I had been taking trading competitions which had interested me.
Preferably I'd like to not take a masters if going to get a job in data analyst for 2 years and self-study is possible and later on transitioning into a Quant role without a masters.
You have to have a masters as it's a base requirement. Also the difference in skills between a financial analyst and a quant is like a PE teacher vs a professional baseball player.
Hello Dimitry, this is probably covered in some other video already, but I was wondering the reason(s) behind switching from MS in Financial Engineering to MS in Applied Economics? (excuse my linkedin stalking)
Here is a video on it.
th-cam.com/video/qodiUClvwFk/w-d-xo.html
This video on my journey will also provide more insight.
th-cam.com/video/rGdfR66Dl4c/w-d-xo.html
I'm going back to school to finish my degree (31yo AA female). The plan is Statistics, with minor in Finance and Computer Science. Am I on the right path? Will my age matter? I'm unnaturally invested in this 😅
In the quant space, age usually doesn't matter. We just want smart people.
th-cam.com/video/LE4Bs1jcslM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=8_R0snaBE78_0od7
The problem is that too many bullshitty undergrads want to be quants. (Think psych, business, xyz studies.) That drowns out the few people who actually have a technical background.
Can I get the major with a physics degree?
I am in Germany, had been in an energy firm's interview for a quant role. The interviewer has an engineering background but seems utterly disinterested in maths, but only in Python.
He could be a quant dev which is just a programmer for quants, they implement models usually and don't do the building of models.
There’s no way you don’t have enough funding to present at your undergrad university
Being a Quant is kind of boring. I got an applied math Ph.D. but, the kind of things they do at my current job is so much more interesting than Financial Engineering. Despite being a popular theoretical equation, you probably won't be doing numerically intense computation with Black Scholes in Quant Finance. Also, you probably won't learn good programming habits as a math guy in quant finance. You won't learn how to use data structures and algorithms or object-oriented programming. Maybe Comp Sci people are more appreciated than mathematicians.
P.S. I even applied to Dimitri's company in Texas, but they reject me. I got a really nice Letter from Dimitri stating that they don't want an applied math ph.d. with high comp sci knowledge and finance theory. Oh well, I live in a much nicer area in California now and get 6 figures and do much more interesting work for NASA and other famous robotics companies. To my understanding, Dimitri, you don't appreciate Ph.D's right? Because you were a master's student who found it hard to get a job and so want to give the little guy a chance and not necessarily the most qualified people? You admitted it yourself that industry jobs kind of hates people from academia no? So what's all the crying about trying to find talent when there is such a thing as discriminating against people who were academics?
They don't want applied math phd with comp sci and financial knowledge? What they want?😊 Did Dimitri say what his firm wants in the letter? I am eager to know what they actually want.
Why are you so mad that you got rejected? Clearly you didn't have what it took don't cry
Hi Dmitri. I'm going to be a junior in high school in three months and was wondering what majors you would recommend to people with the goal of becoming a quant or something similar. I was also wondering if you recommend any activities I could do right now that could help me down the line? Thank you.
I have a degree in mathematics/economics but i dont have any coding skills, what would be enough demonstration enough post degree to become a quant? I feel like self taught certs have lost their luster
I have a video coming out soon on the courses you should take for an undergrad. I would try to find a intro to python course. Or at minimum a statistics or econometrics course that uses a programming language.
@@DimitriBianco I have an undergrad in math and know c++ or object oriented programming very well. where do I apply for quant jobs? I could use a recommendation ☺
@mr.erikchun5863 in finance hub cities you'll also need a masters or PhD.
The video on undergrad courses:
th-cam.com/video/MrVahidTAUc/w-d-xo.html
What do you think about Baruch's Bachelor of Science in Financial Mathematics (BSFM) program? How many universities have undergraduate quant finance programs?
What do you consider to read after reading the book Statistics and Data Analysis for Financial Engineering by David Ruppert
are actuaries not quants? i think there are a lot more firms that can use quants than is apparent, asset managers, commodities firms, power generators, oil & gas. insurance
I'm a High school student
do you think in next 8 years still Do I have high chance to get a job as quant and get a sponsorship for visa?
I'm not us citizen
@DimitriBianco Bro can you please make a video on Quant Devs Carrer in detail..........there's not much information abt it
Hey Dimitri, I'm an undergraduate starting my third year of my Math degree (just switched from Software Engineering) who has interests mainly in pure mathematics. Do you think this would be a problem if I wanted to get a job in finance?
For traditional finance it would be a problem. For quantitative finance it would set you up for a masters.
@@DimitriBianco Would it be a problem if in grad school I also focused on pure math?
It sounds to me like there genuinely isn't a large market for new Quants. Now I honestly don't really know here, but just from your description of the scalability of their work, and their high price tag, it sounds as if becoming a Quant is inherently quite difficult, and competitive. I don't know if something that is already quite difficult and competitive needs a lot of advertising. I mean sure, its nice to increase the size of the talent pool you pick from, but for the students who are aiming to define their career, most to aim at Quant would not be likely to make it into an actual Quant position correct?
It is very competitive however the majority of the US market is being filled by internationals. Math students from China and India are very interested in these careers as I think they see that it is less competitive with American's.
@@DimitriBianco I guess I don't fully understand if that is a problem or not, or why you seem to be suggesting that it would be better (or just nice?) to have more Americans working those positions? Is there a real reason to want these positions filled by Americans vs. more mathematically focused foreign students?
Hi, so "traditional" quants who specialize in derivative pricing and stochastic calculus work primarily in the buyside or sell side for a bank or hedge fund? Which proportion of jobs is higher ?
I am wanting to get into a new quantitative finance degree at Laval university , Quebec , Canada. But i am not sure if it is good? Should i just do a math degree?
Math is only one part of the skillset though a main part. Quant finance gives a wider range of the required skills however math makes you more of a specialist. There is no perfect degree but you should consider all the skills required and find a degree that helps you meet that.
Hey Dimitri, I am a software engineer working with traders at a big investment bank in the UK. I have been coding for a long while, and I would say I am pretty good at it. I would like to start a company of my own, and I would like it to be a quant finance/research firm (kind of like G-Research - they're pretty big in the UK). I know it's a long shot, but it is something I'm really passionate about. What sort of advice would you give to someone trying to start a quant finance/research firm? Thanks a lot!
I won't specifically answer this because I have a guest interview coming out soon from someone who started their own hedge fund and we discuss some of the issues with it. It should provide more insight than me alone.
I am a triple major math stats and cs undergrad. Am I more likely to get into quant with a cs PhD or MFE masters?
Hi Dimitri! Could you make a video on how to move from middle/back office quant to front office quant? I have only two years of quant experience and have only found opportunities in middle/back office (I currently work as a market risk model validator), but my dream is to be a front office quant, since in that kind of positions the technical side is much more focused on stochastic calculus and not so much on statistics and data science. However, I have the feeling that as I gain more experience in the back office it will be more and more difficult to find opportunities in the front office. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. By the way, I love your content. Best regards!
I think what you're looking for is sell side vs buy side (investing). The longer you are in one area it does become harder to switch. If you want to switch I would just apply to buy side jobs but make sure you list on your resume the skills that they have on the job postings.
As for stochastic calculus, it's really just probability and statistics. The buy side isn't as technical as everyone tries to make it. Often switching from one area to another does help with personal interests however there are many areas on both the buy side and sell side.
I am doing undergrad in electronics Engineering, but would like to break in this industry. Is there any specific path I should walk on??
Hii, i am from India and i have a undergrad degree in mathematics, and i found this career path recently and i am very excited to explore this field, i have interest in mathematics, finance and programming. I am going to take a master's degree in mathematics & computing and also a Mtech degree in computer science and i will finish CFA also, since here in India there are not many options in cirtification in quantitative finance & trading. Can you please tell me with these degrees from a high level institute like IIT can i place a job into hfts...or hedge funds....?
How is the preparation going buddy ?
Heyyy i am planning on taking bsc economics and mathematics with python,c++ and r programing
Is it good enough to be a quant
Or should i choose something else like stats
Math is a good undergrad for quant finance.
Does getting an MSc Financial Mathematics from KCL help me become a quant?
Edinburgh, LSE, Imperial, Warwick better
This is a question for anyone. I’m currently doing A Bachelors in Data Science and once I complete it I want to venture into finance. I have 4 choices I’m lining up for my masters (CS, DataS, AI, Quant F) What would be the best overall choice.
Always more math, pure math >>
I was one of the few who was on MySpace born in 2000. LMAO
I'm not sure if I should say you were ahead of your time or behind lol.
Would really love to hear on how you think this whole AI boom is going to change the landscape of quant finance? Like do you think less people will be required to do intensive coding or maybe concentrate on other areas? Looking forward to your insights.
Here is a video on it.
th-cam.com/video/ZWiPrhTqEhk/w-d-xo.html
The GOAT
If your strong at higher math I think quant would be your last choice.
To many cool jobs if your strong
Why quant pays the most lol
@@egoxagony4623 yes but most people I have meet really strong at math are not the money hungry type.
Can we 1st call it properly: Quantitative Finance.
Maybe.....just maybe people will have an idea.🙂
kinda funny, for me I got into math because of quant finance.
They're too busy protesting and trying to be social workers.
6:40 how to make not really old people feel old :)
Quant finance
One of your funniest videos