hey youtube it’s dmitry and today i’m going to answer probably one of the most common questions i get which is dimitri i have a Finance degree i’m
working on a Finance degree and i want to get into quant none;">Finance what path do i take and so i’ll link here at the end of the CashNews.co so you’ll get to the end of the CashNews.co there’ll be a little screenshot here on why you should not go into quant style="font-weight: bold; color: #1a73e8; text-decoration: none;">Finance
my opinion on that but if you actually have a Finance degree or you’re getting a text-decoration: none;">Finance degree and you want to go into quantitative Finance there’s kind of only one path a couple little paths here to do this but
i’m just going to lay down the foundation and what you need to be looking for so you’re not going to be able to get a Finance undergrad and then you know waltz
out go into the world’s most rigorous quantitative financial engineering computational Finance mathematical style="font-weight: bold; color: #1a73e8; text-decoration: none;">Finance
you’re in school you can add like a math minor for example and you can kind of hedge against that basically by covering the skills that you’re going to need for one of these top super rigorous super math driven stats driven computer science driven master’s degrees the math classes
i suggest you take or try to get covered is going to be calculus one two and three real analysis probability odes and pdes that’s kind of the core fundamental basics here and i’ve got a book so i wish i had this book when i was a style="font-weight: bold; color: #1a73e8; text-decoration: none;">Finance
it’s a primer it gets you ready it gives you kind of the skills you need to get into a quant master so i think that’s an excellent book to start with as well kind of get those skills buffed up but again looking at those math classes trying to figure out what you need to kind of work on
a little bit just to prepare you for a master’s is a key piece here besides the mathematics i would highly recommend you take an actual statistics class that focuses on linear regression so i took a business stats class as a bold; color: #1a73e8; text-decoration: none;">Finance student it was the biggest waste of time covering stupid z-scores and normal distributions and then we waved our hands and magically things worked and it’s a waste of time take linear regression if you can if you want to do
more machine learning kind of things take a machine learning class but make sure it covers some sort of linear regression even if it’s just logistic regression that’s something you need to cover and then the second piece here is getting a programming language down it doesn’t
really matter but you need a real programming language no sql is not a real programming language no vba is not a real programming language i mean something like python uh c plus plus or r those are kind of the big ones i would recommend if you want to get into the quant href="https://cashnews.co/finance" style="font-weight: bold; color: #1a73e8; text-decoration: none;">Finance
have the Finance degree and you didn’t add the math classes and you didn’t add the math minor you’re gonna have to be a little creative here and
you’re gonna have to look at quant financial engineering programs that do not require a lot of you know prerequisites so some of them like michigan’s program i mentioned has math requirements they have a list of math courses you must have taken before you can be accepted into the
program avoid the ones like that because you’re not really going to be prepared for that uh the other programs to look into are those that accept or like well-balanced programs programs that are looking for those you know that are in business schools for example i know i’ve said on
multiple occasions i’m not the biggest fan of quant programs in business schools yeah i do think you will get less rigor in your master’s degree but if you’re in a bad situation where you have a #1a73e8; text-decoration: none;">Finance undergrad and you’re wanting to get into quant Finance for some reason which again you should think about why
you’re doing it that can be a shoe in the door though that can at least check off the box okay i have the quant masters even though i have a Finance undergrad um and
then you can really focus on obtaining those skills so for example myself i had a Finance undergrad i started a financial engineering master’s i absolutely hated it i
dropped it i got a master’s in applied economics and finished that up instead focus on the skills that’s what’s going to build you the career it’s not necessarily just the degree in the title here but they’re far easier to finish you know quant masters if they have a
business kind of entitled to it now if you want to take the other route so again undergrad to a business kind of less rigorous you know quant Finance masters here the
business school route that’s path one path twos do something like i did which is really focusing on the skills looking at different programs available and then trying to select those and i will note i took off a semester in the middle of my master’s degree and actually studied math
stats and computer science just trying to really get caught up to where i should be and then i went and picked all these classes basically off of any applied economics masters now i don’t recommend economics to most people as well because most of them don’t focus on math stats computer
science but the university of michigan had an amazing program it was five pork courses in econometrics micro macro and it was more math driven and then on top of that all my electives i chose in general i did take one fun one in Real Estate which i somewhat regret but the other
ones i took in financial engineering like for example stochastic calculus and derivative pricing so that’s the second route you can pick your masters like statistics you know applied economics um i don’t know applied math something different but just make sure you’re covering a
lot of the skills you’re going to need for a quant Finance masters and if you’re unsure about that you can look online at other quant you know financial
engineering masters and figure out what they’re teaching and then try to get something kind of in that realm so anyways that’s my take thanks for listening thanks for watching and as always until next time you
CashNews, your go-to portal for financial news and insights.
hey can you please suggest a path to become a quant if you are a cs major?
is there another route by getting a CFA/& CQF/FRM with a boot camp or rigorous self-learning in data science a way to becomee a quant
If I have a finance degree but I still want to pursue a quant master. Should Should I do another 4 years of a degree like math or stats? Or taking a good base a courses in math area is accepted. For example taking 6 courses or so like Cal 1,2,3 probability… etc. Could take around 1 to 2 years, I wouldn’t get the degree but I would have a good base of math. Is this aceptable for Quant master? Wanted to add I have a minor in CS. I know that is no essential to Quant but wanted to add up.
Dimitri,
Are there opportunities for jobs outside the US/UK? I am interested if there are positions in The Netherlands. I can't find too much information online. I am a finance major most likely going for risk management but I'd like to know if there is a quant scene in the Netherlands. Will most likely self study quant material from your book recommendation videos for fun. Thanks.
Dimitri, after watching your video about MS in applied economics, I was thinking that getting into quant finance through that program could require less quant prerequisites (and harder work during the program) because people with more generalist (and less quant) focus are also going to that program. What do think about this “backdoor”?
Hey Dimitri,
Tell me please the application of Differential Geometry in QF and what advantages/drawbacks such a knowledge has compared to the PDE.
Thank you
Dimitri,
I'm looking to become a quant analyst or data scientist and currently weighing up 2 options for my degree and masters..
Options are for degree are BSc in Math & Finance or BSc in Math & Computer Science.
Options for masters are MSc in Data Analysis or MSc in Quantitative Finance. Not sure what the best path would be?
I have the opposite problem. I just finished a BS in Financial Math and Stats class at a top 30 school with a good GPA. All the math, stats, and coding requirements in the videos are more than met. However, the school barely touched on any finance stuff. I am taking a gap year before applying to quant/ MFE programs. Do you have advice for what kind of job should I apply for to better prep me for grad school and just about applying for finance jobs in general.
Would this be identical for economics undergrads?
100% truth and to add on my 2 cents. I was a Finance grad and am currently self-studying Maths and Programming before applying to MFE/MQF.
The things that are taught in Finance have 0 application for a Quant role. The closest module I had is probably Derivative.
For people that really want to understand more about the Maths portion, the Primer book that Dimitri showed in the video is a good book to start. Don't get it? Youtube/Google your way through.
As for programming, there are tons of resources and books on it, so it should not be a problem.
Another factor that you need to consider is the time taken to have the basic skills. I have 0 Maths and Programming background, every day I study 3 hours and I estimated the time to acquire the basic skills is 2 years. Unless you intend to crash into a Quant Masters, which I do not recommend as the learning curve is really STEEP.
Dimitri,
For someone looking to begin coding for finance, would you recommend Python, C++, or R? Specifically for a practitioner rather than someone in/pursuing the academic route.
R and Python are also not real programming languages :D, examples of real programming languages – C/C++/Cuda, Java, GoLang
Hi Dimitri! Do you know whether there are age restrictions for entering the quant scene?
For ex, if someone got undegr in non-quant degree (History or Languages), and after that get undegr in applied math/math with 30 years-old finishing. How banks/quant firms look at such a case?
Hey dimitri. This is a side question that’s not related to the video. When I go on LinkedIn and look at all the quant researchers who are at firms (top firms, tier 2 firms etc), all across the board I see mathematicians. Phd, pure mathematics, phd applied mathematics. Just mathematicians, mathematicians, and even more mathematicians, and insert a physicist here or there.
My question to you is, are statisticians not sought out as much much as mathematicians for quant research roles? Do firms have this idea of mathematicians > physicists > statisticians?
Or is this the phenomenon we saw earlier with low statistics majors in MFE programs, where it was due to the fact that they went to other ms programs, ie. Data science & statistics.
My hunch is that maybe it’s the same reason, that statisticians are going to data science, or pharma, or tech, and not really putting quant firms first.
However, I read an interesting discussion on Reddit, which, of course is not ground truth, but they were comparing the differences in the skillsets between mathematicians/physicists and statisticians. They were saying how, statisticians are not trained in “modeling from first principles” like mathematicians and physicists are. Ie, where a statistician would do analysis, assess assumptions, and fit a model maybe tweak an existing model to their liking, a mathematicians or Physicist would be essentially reinventing the wheel every time in modeling, where they make customized models for everything, ie, first principles.
What do you think about this? Do you think that maybe I’m just seeing the phenomenon you talked about in the no stats majors in MFE video?
Best degree for private equity?
Excellent insight! Curious, why do you recommend learning linear regression as it seems analysis related to ML techniques will be become increasingly relevant – rendering LR increasingly less so?
Can you do a "Physics undergrad to Quant Finance Career". There are LOADS of physicists I know who are amazing quants but just can't get the jobs as banks don't want to take the risk.
Right now I'm double majoring in finance and Data Analytics, with a minor in mathematics. My plan is to get a stats or data science masters. I'd love to work as a data scientist in the financial sector, maybe one day even as a quant?
If you're good enough to make it from traditional finance to quant finance, It's better not to; because you will make more money in finance thanks to the opportunity cost, if you're not good enough don't waste your time, if you're passionate about it read research papers in your free time.
If anyone is wondering, I have paint on my head from the dream garage project. Time has been limited for recording videos.