Hồ Sỹ Nguyên Personal Statement of Purpose

1 Motivation for participating to this Program

I graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Social sciences and Humanities with a Bachelor of
Arts degree in International Relations. Began as a requirement of the IR’s course, learning economics
and finance became a joy to me. I found this subject has its own dynamic, robustness on forecasting
and rationality on making the decision. The beauty and elegance of those things are astonishing to me.

However, there is an apparent gap between social science and quantitative finance that I have to bridge.
To fulfill this mission, I make use of various resources and chances. I read lecture notes and solved
problems in many subjects which are preliminaries for computing financial such as basic calculus,
linear algebra, probability, and statistics. To challenge myself, I took part in and became a semi-finalist
of Entropy 2018. In spite of having early exposure to economics throughout undergraduate years, I am
aware that introductory knowledge in quantitative finance is inevitable to pursue QCF program. For
this reason, I enrolled in VCREME’s pre-master program (Vietnam Center of Research in Economics,
Management and Environment) which consists of five modules: mathematical optimization,
microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, and quantitative finance.

I completely understand there will be challenging for me to accomplish the program, but I’m confident
that my willing to learn, along with the positive class experience, will help me success in the program. I
strongly believe that JVN will further my knowledge and enrich my ability to conduct research and
work in the field of QCF.

2 Preferred orientation for M2

I haven’t decided research orientation for M2.

3 Assessment of complimentary knowledge to be attending the program

I comprehend that QCF program based on three pillars: math, computer programming, and financial
knowledge.

In preparing for applying for QCF program, I have learned principles of mathematical analysis. I’m
able to do fundamental linear algebra also appreciate its role in computing science, more precisely, in
quantitative financial computing. I know that probability and statistics has a key role in the whole
program, and honestly, I have invested a lot of time to learn those subjects.

I started learning computer programming for a year. Until now, I am familiar with R programming
language. I am able to do what a typical student of the second course in statistics can: using R for
statistical inference, prediction, explanation, diagnostics and spot some common problems in practice.
Recently, I begin learning Julia language for simulating models.

I equipped knowledge myself via books and took a course in quantitative finance at VCREME.
Therefore, I grasped basic definitions, known how the market runs and accustomed to basis calculating
in finance.
In summary, I understand that QCF’s courses will be hard and demanding but I also believe that I
acquired enough preliminary knowledge to be attending the program.

4 Financial capacity

I am capable of pursuing QCF program financially.