Education advices

[eliopi]

Hi,

Hope you re doing well. I’m currently a 3rd year student in a Business School (top 6) in France. I’ve discovered quant finance about a year ago and immediately fell in love I started to study as an autodidact all the maths needed through MOOCs and books ( Probability and Statistics schaum’s outline / Linear Algebra Done Right / Introdction to linear Algebra…) + took maths tutoring. Besides that I worked on my coding skills and started to do quant projects as well as a trading bot (using python / machine learning…).

But I’m really lost in the path I must take to become a quant analyst (HFT). The business bachelor was a true nightmare I hated it and brought 0 intellectual stimulation whatsoever. I applied to some « quant » public master (highly doubt I will be taken) and EDHEC’s financial engineering MSc.

Do I need to switch bachelor and start again in a maths bachelor ? Is there other way I should look after ? I’d like to pursue a PhD after but given my profile will I even be taken ?

Thank you all by advance, I’m taking any advices or suggestions

 

[Daniel Duffy]

yes, I would do a maths degree.

 

[eliopi]

yes, I would do a maths degree.

Is there any chance I can get in as a 2nd year student ?

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Is there any chance I can get in as a 2nd year student ?

I don't know, I am not in academia.
But business studies is almost a million miles from maths imo.

 

[achirikhin]

Hello Eliopi,

First and foremost you need to be committed to becoming a quant. This is crucial. You need to be honest with yourself and know what you are doing.

There are many types of quant jobs on sell and buy side, in fintech and in consulting. They all require slightly different skillset. But the two main things to realise are as follows.

1. It is mostly an applied job. You program; you design develop and support tools. There are only very quant specialisations that do not require that. You will almost surley not be doing theoretical research or writing papers, it in the first 10 years anyway.

2. Average pay correlates strongly with the amount and quality of your programming. Therefore it is programming and numerical methods you need to learn. PDEs and Monte Calro. Ideally C++, Python at the very least. The more you learn before applying for your first job, the faster your progression will be at the job, and the higher the chances will be to get the job at first place.

For the aspiring quants like yourself, I have produced a special course "Quantitative Analyst, Developer, Strat: The Profession". It is not about math of the profession, but about the profession itself. There is a lot of free material there, so please check it out. It will answer many questions.

qaprofession.com

Any further questions - shoot!

Good luck.