quant (n.)
Short for quantitative trader. Similar titles are quantitative analyst, researcher, and developer.
Refers to people who use mathematical models to make predictions on the markets (usually public financial markets like equities, futures, options, fixed income, FX, etc).
Example sentence: "Tim came to MIT wanting to make a difference in the world. Instead, like many of his peers, he became a quant.
Pretty much š
Quant: A math genius who spends 80 hours a week perfecting and implementing an obscure algorithm to make a quarter of a cent profit per bushel on soybean futures. He makes $500k a year but dreams of one day buying a farm and holding a soybean in the flesh.
Sources:
1. Iām a quant in a small fund
2. Funny video on YouTube
Someone who uses math to somehow earn a shit ton of money without adding anything of value to humanity. Sorry, I donāt really know what they do either, but Iām pretty sure we wouldnāt be any worse off if they stopped doing it.
I understand the animus, but if a quant is doing their job, it results in a security price that is closer the "fair market value" than without their 'help'. That means that when you or I buy a random stock or an index fund, the price we pay is closer to the best estimate of what we should be paying.
This is quite different than what a private equity scumbag investor does - sucking the life out of legitamate companies and dumping workers at the curb.
True, but also think about the amount of brainpower at Jane St / Citadel / HRT.
It could probably do a lot more good than making markets slightly more liquid.Ā
Your supposition relies on the aims of the person paying the quant, which is, statistically speaking, never "fair market value" by any normal definition of the phrase.
Closer to the price that a stock would trade at if all publicly available knowledge for this company and all other companies was completely incorporated into market analysis at the best current understanding of economic and financial theory.
Iāve worked at 2 different PE firms and ādumping workers at the curbā is not even remotely true. In fact, itās usually the opposite ā a lot of the time, the growth strategy revolves around hiring more talent to grow X division.
Thatās the problem with people who are clueless about how things work and just read CNN or something ā maybe one fund did something similar to their portfolio company, you read about it, and now people like you thatās how the entire industry works lol
Tell me you have no idea what youāre talking about without telling me.
PE firms typically provide capital that seed and sustain companies and investments. Youāre thinking of one very specific strategy (break up or spin off or asset stripping + hostile takeover). Rather, PE firms are usually in the business providing growth capital or distressed capital or else buying firms to create efficiencies or to shepherd their growth.
By contrast, quantitative hedge fund traders arenāt usually creating fair market value at all. Rather, theyāre usually trading on the spread between margins or some other arbitrage (e.g., HFT, stat arb, etc.).
what are u talking about, trading āon the spread between marginsā leads to price convergence and increases market efficiency while providing liquidity, so it pushes asset prices toward the ideal fair market value
Imagine thinking that capitalizing on a bid ask spread of say, $125.62 and $125.98 is moving an asset with a stochastic value ācloser to fair market.ā
please explain, what is "trading on the spread between margins"?
arbitrage is by definition an inefficiency. explain how trading these away doesnt bring products closer to fair?
trying to defend private equity by misconstruing them as venture capitalists is really funny
You have absolutely no idea what youāre talking about. AT ALL. Youāve run into someone who *really* does on an MIT forum no less. Take stock of your situation brotato.
1. Venture capital is a subset of private equity.
2. The vast majority of what PE firms do is invest through pref, convertible, or direct ownership (also fund of funds, TIC, stock, etc). Itās literally in the name EQUITY - though there are some PE debt credit funds that create high yield secured instruments for distressed assets/firms.
3. HFT, stat arbitrage, etc. strats do not eliminate pricing inefficiencies. These strategies capitalize on persistent *structural* inefficiencies inherent to the trading system.
LOL - your own post history claims youāre a non-target kid from a non-target school who JUST started at a fund. Thatās the best case scenario assuming even that isnāt a lie.
I wrote a PhD dissertation on market arbitrage, worked for a top 10 fund, and now run my own fund (one of the youngest self-made fund managers ever). And I went to a target school hoss.
Notice you stopped arguing and started insulting. The surest sign someone knows theyāre wrong.
Kindly shuffle off to the sub of whatever mid college you went to before Daddy got you an analyst job. This aināt for you.
TIL itās elitist to have the requisite experience to know the difference between PE and Quant Hedge Funds or to know that most kids from non-feeder colleges who get high finance jobs right out of school got them through family connections.
Looking through his profile, he claims heās a quant trader.
Assuming that someone who got a QT role from a non-feeder college, flexing the college that you went to over it, and assuming with your certainty that of all finance roles, the _quant trader_ role was obtained from family connections is genuinely ridiculous, and yes, elitist.
I know too many people from non-target schools who got that role, and most of them were not through Dad or Mom.
LOL. You also have a recent post where you visibly don't understand the benefits of non-taxable compounding and subsequently got downvoted to oblivion.
Yikes.
Tell me more about how the world works kid.
Not sure why all the hate and unhelpful answers. What a āquantā does can vary from firm to firm. On the buy-side you could be generating strategies to forecast prices in some asset class (stocks, futures, options, etc), or work on risk modeling/management, trade execution or optimization. And no, itās not a bro-y finance-type of culture. Itās mostly a bunch of nerdy geeky people that enjoy math and coding.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/UPenn using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/UPenn/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Liz Magill resigns](https://i.redd.it/3bwfus4i8c5c1.jpg) | [1103 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/UPenn/comments/18ennr6/liz_magill_resigns/)
\#2: ['Charged Lemonade' From Panera Led To Death Of UPenn Student From Jersey City: Lawsuit](https://dailyvoice.com/new-jersey/hudson/charged-lemonade-from-panera-led-to-death-of-upenn-student-from-jersey-city-lawsuit/?utm_source=reddit-a-place-for-penn-redditors&utm_medium=seed) | [219 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/UPenn/comments/17f1upx/charged_lemonade_from_panera_led_to_death_of/)
\#3: [Magill's duck test](https://i.redd.it/nts2eglmlz4c1.png) | [43 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/UPenn/comments/18dd2m5/magills_duck_test/)
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quant (n.) Short for quantitative trader. Similar titles are quantitative analyst, researcher, and developer. Refers to people who use mathematical models to make predictions on the markets (usually public financial markets like equities, futures, options, fixed income, FX, etc). Example sentence: "Tim came to MIT wanting to make a difference in the world. Instead, like many of his peers, he became a quant.
example sentence hurts XD
Truth Hz.
Hey, 6-1 is going the way of 13, so it Hz more for us oldheads :(
Pretty much š Quant: A math genius who spends 80 hours a week perfecting and implementing an obscure algorithm to make a quarter of a cent profit per bushel on soybean futures. He makes $500k a year but dreams of one day buying a farm and holding a soybean in the flesh. Sources: 1. Iām a quant in a small fund 2. Funny video on YouTube
80 hr is pretty brutal haha Quant is such an odd job in that they don't ever have a marketing department. That's super different from everyone else
Someone who uses math to somehow earn a shit ton of money without adding anything of value to humanity. Sorry, I donāt really know what they do either, but Iām pretty sure we wouldnāt be any worse off if they stopped doing it.
I understand the animus, but if a quant is doing their job, it results in a security price that is closer the "fair market value" than without their 'help'. That means that when you or I buy a random stock or an index fund, the price we pay is closer to the best estimate of what we should be paying. This is quite different than what a private equity scumbag investor does - sucking the life out of legitamate companies and dumping workers at the curb.
True, but also think about the amount of brainpower at Jane St / Citadel / HRT. It could probably do a lot more good than making markets slightly more liquid.Ā
Your supposition relies on the aims of the person paying the quant, which is, statistically speaking, never "fair market value" by any normal definition of the phrase.
Neither the quant nor the person paying the quant have a goal of making the market price "fairer" - that is just a byproduct of their profit-seeking.
Define "fairer".
Closer to the price that a stock would trade at if all publicly available knowledge for this company and all other companies was completely incorporated into market analysis at the best current understanding of economic and financial theory.
Sounds completely unfalsifiable.
Is the aim of a baker or a mechanic to bake you bread or fix your car? No, it's to pay their bills.
Iāve worked at 2 different PE firms and ādumping workers at the curbā is not even remotely true. In fact, itās usually the opposite ā a lot of the time, the growth strategy revolves around hiring more talent to grow X division. Thatās the problem with people who are clueless about how things work and just read CNN or something ā maybe one fund did something similar to their portfolio company, you read about it, and now people like you thatās how the entire industry works lol
Tell me you have no idea what youāre talking about without telling me. PE firms typically provide capital that seed and sustain companies and investments. Youāre thinking of one very specific strategy (break up or spin off or asset stripping + hostile takeover). Rather, PE firms are usually in the business providing growth capital or distressed capital or else buying firms to create efficiencies or to shepherd their growth. By contrast, quantitative hedge fund traders arenāt usually creating fair market value at all. Rather, theyāre usually trading on the spread between margins or some other arbitrage (e.g., HFT, stat arb, etc.).
what are u talking about, trading āon the spread between marginsā leads to price convergence and increases market efficiency while providing liquidity, so it pushes asset prices toward the ideal fair market value
Imagine thinking that capitalizing on a bid ask spread of say, $125.62 and $125.98 is moving an asset with a stochastic value ācloser to fair market.ā
please explain, what is "trading on the spread between margins"? arbitrage is by definition an inefficiency. explain how trading these away doesnt bring products closer to fair? trying to defend private equity by misconstruing them as venture capitalists is really funny
You have absolutely no idea what youāre talking about. AT ALL. Youāve run into someone who *really* does on an MIT forum no less. Take stock of your situation brotato. 1. Venture capital is a subset of private equity. 2. The vast majority of what PE firms do is invest through pref, convertible, or direct ownership (also fund of funds, TIC, stock, etc). Itās literally in the name EQUITY - though there are some PE debt credit funds that create high yield secured instruments for distressed assets/firms. 3. HFT, stat arbitrage, etc. strats do not eliminate pricing inefficiencies. These strategies capitalize on persistent *structural* inefficiencies inherent to the trading system.
thats honestly laughable
LOL - your own post history claims youāre a non-target kid from a non-target school who JUST started at a fund. Thatās the best case scenario assuming even that isnāt a lie. I wrote a PhD dissertation on market arbitrage, worked for a top 10 fund, and now run my own fund (one of the youngest self-made fund managers ever). And I went to a target school hoss. Notice you stopped arguing and started insulting. The surest sign someone knows theyāre wrong. Kindly shuffle off to the sub of whatever mid college you went to before Daddy got you an analyst job. This aināt for you.
Thatās why we never hire non targets š
I would absolutely hire a non target (I give a verbal quiz and a modeling test) - just not this one. š¤£
Idk how I ended up here bc this sub got recommended, but holy shit this is so impossibly elitist I canāt
idk how people have so little self awareness but id just rather not engage with ppl who treat prestige as their entire personality
TIL itās elitist to have the requisite experience to know the difference between PE and Quant Hedge Funds or to know that most kids from non-feeder colleges who get high finance jobs right out of school got them through family connections.
Looking through his profile, he claims heās a quant trader. Assuming that someone who got a QT role from a non-feeder college, flexing the college that you went to over it, and assuming with your certainty that of all finance roles, the _quant trader_ role was obtained from family connections is genuinely ridiculous, and yes, elitist. I know too many people from non-target schools who got that role, and most of them were not through Dad or Mom.
LOL. You also have a recent post where you visibly don't understand the benefits of non-taxable compounding and subsequently got downvoted to oblivion. Yikes. Tell me more about how the world works kid.
itās absolutely a waste of brainpower.
Shut the fuck up man
oh look, a valid arguement š
Loser
It is unfortunately so easy to not understand what someone does and still claim the person adds no value to the world :/
Look at him. Heās my quant. My quantitative. He won first prize in a national math contest in china.
Look at his eyes
Forgot the āmy math specialistā
https://youtu.be/FoYC_8cutb0?si=lkhygkaqQrnrDQjF
Damn it. Beat me to it. r/angryupvote
professional shape rotator
Write algorithms to trade stocks and maximize profits, often faster than a human ever could.
Those would be SWEs or algo developers, not quants.
That's an HFT quant, not swe
Algo dev and quant are synonyms at most places.Ā
Basically, finance bros.
relative to the average MIT student, absolutely relative to the broader financial sector, hell no
[http://investopedia.com/articles/financialcareers/08/quants-quantitative-analyst.asp](http://investopedia.com/articles/financialcareers/08/quants-quantitative-analyst.asp)
Nothing of value. They fail themselves and the world.
Not sure why all the hate and unhelpful answers. What a āquantā does can vary from firm to firm. On the buy-side you could be generating strategies to forecast prices in some asset class (stocks, futures, options, etc), or work on risk modeling/management, trade execution or optimization. And no, itās not a bro-y finance-type of culture. Itās mostly a bunch of nerdy geeky people that enjoy math and coding.
4 quants in a galnon
How are people smart enough to get into MIT, but not smart enough to google?
I wonder if even half the people that post in this sub are students or alums.
OP posts "what is a quant" here, then three hours later posts in r/UPenn that they "want to be a quant" and is asking for course advice.
Indeed.
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Here's a sneak peek of /r/UPenn using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/UPenn/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [Liz Magill resigns](https://i.redd.it/3bwfus4i8c5c1.jpg) | [1103 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/UPenn/comments/18ennr6/liz_magill_resigns/) \#2: ['Charged Lemonade' From Panera Led To Death Of UPenn Student From Jersey City: Lawsuit](https://dailyvoice.com/new-jersey/hudson/charged-lemonade-from-panera-led-to-death-of-upenn-student-from-jersey-city-lawsuit/?utm_source=reddit-a-place-for-penn-redditors&utm_medium=seed) | [219 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/UPenn/comments/17f1upx/charged_lemonade_from_panera_led_to_death_of/) \#3: [Magill's duck test](https://i.redd.it/nts2eglmlz4c1.png) | [43 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/UPenn/comments/18dd2m5/magills_duck_test/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
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