There are generally three roles of interest in the quant finance community. They are the quant trader, financial engineer (quant analyst) and a quant developer (quant dev). There are also more recent roles in risk management that make strong usage of quantitative techniques. MMspire is looking for quant analyst to build out on ideas, back test them and to suggest improvements.

Hard Skills Used In Our Quant Modeling Area

  • Ability to solve complicated problems: use of excel with large data sets including pivot tables, macros, enhanced calls to VBA, complex graphing.  You must be able to make excel dance.
  • One programming language such as Python, R: better suited to back tested and simulation environments.  Python is pretty nifty for rapid development.
  • Research ability including data collection from web.
  • Mathematics: calculus, linear algebra (some differential equations), probability and statistics
  • Finance skill: portfolio theory, derivatives, options foreign exchange.
  • Communication skills in power point for analysis presentation. Superior ease of use.
  • Ease with new technology such as trading platforms FXCM and Bloomberg.  Bloomberg Essentials: Commodities, Equities, Fixed Income and FX. 

Communication and Attitude

For most quants, the soft skills are where you will earn your money. Influence is key. Building a great pricing model is one thing, convincing a trader to use it to identify nice spread trades is completely another. If you think out of sample testing and running a shadow book is the way to achieve that then you have a lot to learn.

Attitude is critical. If you can't speak in a way that makes people listen, you are going to struggle. If you can't answer a yes or no question in a binary fashion, you are going to struggle. If you start sentences with the phrase "My hypothesis is..." you are going to struggle. This is a tough world full of people who believe they are smarter than every other person in the room. Equivocation is not the way to earn their respect.

External Resources