Prop Shops, HFTs and Hedge Funds

Quantative Researcher is a very niche job profile common in these industries. I wanted to understand what are the techincial skill sets required to pioneer in this line of industry. 1. What financial concepts are good to know for its day to day req. ex Voltaility Curves, Stochastic Finance, product knowledge like Options and Futures etc. ? 2. ML/DL are being applied more and more and given ML/DL is a vast field, what are the common fechniques which are applied more frequently. 3. How much does the role involves developing tools for the traders?

Jordon Denver

Apex

a month ago

Okay so let’s start with differences, props are different from HFTs which are different from hedge funds. Each requires a different skill set and level of experience and qualification. In prop shops, it’s your experience and risk management which counts. Usually a degree in finance is the way to go, but what matters is your experience and by whom you’re being mentored by. HFTs required specialised PhD candidates, extremely good in mathematics, probability, and high level of coding. Highest paid field rn. Also you need to be extremely smart af to become a quant here. Hedge funds, a bachelor from tier 1 college gets you in, MBA from tier 1 college in finance makes sure you’re in the firm for a long time. Props are the riskiest, but the most fun, and you make money in the long run, like the most amount of money ever. Starting years are dry and if within 3-4 years you don’t develop the skill you’ll be out of the game. Takes 15 years to be considered a beginner lol. But if you hit the right boxes, in the first 5-6 years you might be a multi-millionaire. HFTs pay the highest, but a never ending work cycle, work as a quant for first 5 years make shit ton of money and shift to an analyst. Hedge funds, boring and excel based work but stable and you get a lot of perks, pay is average but increases gradually. Dont listen to wall street fanatics, you dont get paid as much as it’s shown especially in India.