quant finance in 2015

[tfors]

Hello everybody,

Already have a degree in business but thinking about restarting at bachelor level in something quanty.

What do you guys think the quant finance world will look like in 2015 / 2016? Will there still be demand for quant traders? Or will things have become that complex that you will only have sales, programmers and the universities will do the research?

 

[financeguy]

Hello everybody,

Already have a degree in business but thinking about restarting at bachelor level in something quanty.

What do you guys think the quant finance world will look like in 2015 / 2016? Will there still be demand for quant traders? Or will things have become that complex that you will only have sales, programmers and the universities will do the research?

its a bit hard to predict the future, but i'm fairly confident the world won't look how you've described it.. i think there will still be demand for quant traders as well as traders with quantitative aptitude and training, in general.. cant say much more without more specificity as to what side of the trading business you're looking to be on, or what asset class etc.

 

[tfors]

Thanks for your answer financeguy. Not sure which asset class I would like to be on. But I am sure I'd like to be in a revenue generating position, as I am a type A / result oriented kind of guy. That's the nice thing of quant finance, you can use quantitative skills to directly make money (or invent/test strategies that make money). Not sure if this would be possible outside of finance.

Just trying to make sure I am not getting a degree in applied / financial math and then being confined to risk management / system development or something like that (not disrespecting, it would just not be for me).

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Not sure which asset class I would like to be on. But I am sure I'd like to be in a revenue generating position, as I am a type A / result oriented kind of guy. That's the nice thing of quant finance, you can use quantitative skills to directly make money (or invent/test strategies that make money).

This is as general as it gets. 95% of people interested in this line of work says the exact same thing.
You can't prepare for an uncertain future if you don't know what role you want to play in it.
I would suggest #6 book on this list http://www.quantnet.com/quantnet-best-selling-books-2011/

 

[TBeas]

I think this is a very important question, for any career.

For quantitative finance, I fear that political legislation may be the biggest hurdle.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I think this is a very important question, for any career.

Wouldn't it be great if we somehow can answer that question?
I think history has a lot of glues for us in learning about the future. Do you notice that machines are now doing the work that human beings did it 30 years ago (look at the floor traders at NYSE being replaced by machines)?
Do you notice that the amount of data and information are growing at a pace that human can't keep up with? You can throw more powerful computers at it but at some points, there is going to be an urgent need for "data scientist".
Just look at problems in other industries and you can see similar problems.
How are we going to position ourselves to solve the problems of the next 5-10 years?

 

[amanda.jayne]

I think the 'World of Tomorrow - Work School and Play" published in 1981 was pretty accurate

Siri makes an appearance on page 15

http://www.goaste.cx/museum/worldoftomorrowschoolworkplayindex.php

 

[TBeas]

Wouldn't it be great if we somehow can answer that question?
I think history has a lot of glues for us in learning about the future. Do you notice that machines are now doing the work that human beings did it 30 years ago (look at the floor traders at NYSE being replaced by machines)?
Do you notice that the amount of data and information are growing at a pace that human can't keep up with? You can throw more powerful computers at it but at some points, there is going to be an urgent need for "data scientist".
Just look at problems in other industries and you can see similar problems.
How are we going to position ourselves to solve the problems of the next 5-10 years?

I agree and I definitely think that having some sort of degree or qualifications in Statistics is going to be the next big trend.

 

[IlyaKEightSix]

You know math? You can program? You know your way around money?

Great! I'm sure you can get lots of jobs if you have a good background in all three.