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Comment by sosilkj | Hacker News Reader

Sounds like right now banks want people who can code but also have "quant skills". What's the best way to go about learning/acquiring quant skills?

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(Given that you've taken the calc 1-3 + probability and stats 101)

- Linear Algebra

- Numerical Methods

- Stochastic processes

- Time series analysis

- Mathematical Optimization

- Multivariate statistics

- Statistical inference

- Computation intensive statistics

- (Machine Learning)

- (Differential Equations)

- (Mathematical Methods and modelling)

On top of that, some decent knowledge in scripting and programming.

Pretty much any decent Statistics or Applied Math program will provide you with a good foundation of quant jobs.

CS or math masters followed by a masters in computational finance. Most quants are hired right out of these computational finance programs -- which, unsurprisingly, are some of the most difficult programs in the world to be accepted into as you're competing against people from across the world with masters or PhDs in mathematics. Salary ranges are ridiculous; at the school I went to for an MBA it was not unheard of for signing bonuses in quant finance to top $500k (and that was a decade ago).

A friend of mine started in the industry right of school with a CS degree but then got a masters in financial engineering at night a few years in.

You're better off getting the up-to-date scoop from people that are active in the industry:

https://wallstreetoasis.com/

https://forum.wilmott.com/

Those are principally forums for people who would like to work in the industry. Take with a grain of salt.

Learn math, stats, probability.

By not working for banks

I am not working for a bank, and this lack of work so far did not contribute to me gaining quant knowledge. I don't think your advice is very useful.

Not the OP, but he/she was probably suggesting that acquiring "quaint skills" is not the best use of her/his time for a person curious enough about acquiring "quaint skills", it's like warning someone "don't go down that dark alley, it's not worth it".

I’ll speculate as well. The op is saying that the banks want quant skills but don’t have them. Therefore you need to acquire them somewhere else since the banks are lacking these skills.

I think you’re misreading the word “quant” and coming off with a very different understanding of subtext here.

Could be, generally speaking is difficult to get the right subtext from just a couple of sentences.

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