Quantitative

Finance

Careers, Resources and Skills

Contents

Categorizations
Sub Categorizations
Skill Sets Required
Internship/ Full Time profiles
Books to Read
Keeping up to date with trends
Categorizations

● Buy Side vs Sell Side

○ Buy Side
■ In finance the buy-side refers to firms who’s business is making investments
or trades to earn returns. Example : hedge fund : buys stocks to earn a
return.
○ Sell Side :
■ Simply, everything else in finance.
■ More specifically, the sell-side is basically the investment banks (i.e. Goldman
Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley…).
■ They act as brokers, M&A Advisors
● Good News : Quants work on both the buy-side and the sell-side.
Sub - Categorizations

1. High Frequency Trading Firms (i.e. HRT, Jump, Virtu…)

2. Proprietary Trading Firms / Market Makers (i.e. Jane Street, IMC, SIG…)
3. Hedge Funds (i.e. Citadel, Millennium, Point72…)
4. Asset Managers (i.e. AQR, BlackRock, Man Numeric, Fidelity…)
5. Investment Banks (i.e. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan…)

Almost all of them offer Quant roles.

Skill Sets Required
01 Mathematics, Statistics and Programming

● Calculus:
○ Math 1 and 2
● Linear Algebra:
○ cs229.stanford.edu/section/cs229-linalg.pdf
● Partial Differential Equations:
○ Math 3
● Probability and Statistics :
○ www.probabilitycourse.com
○ www.statlect.com/fundamentals-of-statistics/
● DSA, DAA, OS, OOP, Proficiency in either of Python/C++/Java

02 Communication : Ability to convey your idea and thoughts in a clear and concise
manner.
Internship/Full Time profiles

● Generally depends on the firm, asset class and your

specific project.
● Can be largely divided into Modelling or Infra or Analytics
roles and everything in between.
● In any given week a quant might spend time on either of
these 3 things
○ Research : Read research papers, Dig into data to find
patterns
○ Modelling : Formulating a model for your usecase and
specification
○ Coding : Development / Bug fixes
Books to read : Strongly recommended

● Heard on the Street: Quantitative Questions from Wall Street Job Interviews
by Timothy Crack
● A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews by Xinfeng Zhou
● Cracking the Finance Quant Interview: 51 Interview Questions and Solutions
by Jean Peyre
● Vault Guide to Advanced Finance & Quantitative Interviews
● Quant Job Interview Questions and Answers
● Frequently Asked Questions in Quantitative Finance
● Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives by John Hull
● The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and the Economist

https://haas.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/mfechecklist2023.pdf
Keeping up to date with the trends :
● Follow the right people
○ https://www.linkedin.com/in/j%C3%B6rg-kienitz-8b160a
○ https://www.linkedin.com/in/eyal-neuman-6b302a26
○ https://www.linkedin.com/in/filippo-guerrieri-a23b1410a
○ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lehalle
○ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhruvsharma26
○ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-t-webster
○ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kostovcikpeter
● Read research from good quant finance journals journals
○ Machine Learning And Data Sciences For Financial Markets
● Follow quant speakers:
○ https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-booth-quantheadhunter/
○ https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivek-viswanathan-phd/