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- Use your quantitative skills to help develop complex and innovative financial products
- Develop tools and software to give your bank an edge over the competition
- Apply advanced techniques picked up in your PHD/master's studies on a day-to-day basis
As a quantitative analyst (quant), you'll work in markets, the front office division of investment banking.
DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES
Your day-to-day tasks will involve working with advanced formulae and computer software. As a lot of trading is now conducted electronically, there is an increasingly high demand for quants.
You'll:
- Be in charge of pricing complex financial products to be traded in markets, which you'll need advanced mathematics and financial tools to compute these prices.
- Use quantitative analysis to identify profitable trades and manage risk.
- Ensure the smoothness of the trading process for traders, using artificial intelligence, big data and algorithmic trading to analyse the trading process.
- Develop tools and software for traders so that trades can be carried out as efficiently as possible, as well as creating trading algorithms which allow computers to trade automatically.
DAY-TO-DAY ENVIRONMENT
You'll work in an office and will sometimes have to work very long hours, and your working environment may be stressful at times.
You'll need
To be a quantitative analyst, you'll need strong numerical and analytical skills, data mining ability, knowledge of maths and statistics, the ability to work well under pressure, and time management skills.
As the role involves a lot of high level mathematics and analysis, you would usually require a master's or a PHD in a numerate subject to work as a quantitative analyst. A lot of roles also require you to have some coding skills as well. To give yourself an edge over the competition, you can apply for an internship during your studies. If you perform well on the internship then they might give you a full time offer once you have completed your studies.
CAREER PROSPECTS
You move into asset management and hedge funds later on in your career.