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How is this subsidiary yield book which is a part of citi group. What will be the potential for growth in this place money wise. As andy said, finance makes money only in front office so how does this firm fit?

I believe this is a C++ test. Did you give this test or you still have time to send it back to them? Anyway for question 3) a) b) and c) may need recompilation but no 4) should not need recompilation. Recompilation for a) is required only if the constructor is overloading an old one with...

Thanks for your responses. I am interviewing with Morgan Stanley also(second round). I guess you pointed out the chance of getting the final job offer is slim and to make zillion dollars is even slimmer. Right?

I have two weeks to decide on an offer in a non-financial company that is offering close to six figure in St Louis. I have some interviewed lined up with some small financial companies like Interactive Brokers etc but no offer in hand from finance industry. Is it good to take the offer that I...

I just wanted to know how to solve the problem of calculating the probability of a Brownian motion hitting point a that is positive before point b that is negative. Can we solve it using a random walk itself or there is a better way?

How are the QTR group recruiters? I heard very bad things about them.

Are these programming expectation for all quant jobs in wall street? It is very CS oriented,right?

I wanted to see where each of these methods are used and where they crisscross. For example, I heard that derivative pricing does not concern itself with future prediction like time series does, but perhaps it can use volatility information from GARCH models. Is it true that the field of...

They are a relatively stable firm with a great culture.

I have no contact with anyone in JP Morgan. I want to interview with the firm, but I found no headhunter who works with them. Anybody knows someone with contacts in JP Morgan?

how to spot the bad headhunters How exactly do I spot the bad headhunter? Is it a bad practice to send resumes to too many HHs and if these HHs send your resume to a firm without permission, will the firm never call you because of it?

No my friend has a job but then you need to secure your stay here in US. For that you require green card. So I was asking whether EB1 category filing is possible for quants.

Does anybody in finance file for EB1 category greencard, especially someone with non-Finance PhDs? I was asking for my friend as EB2 waiting time is too much for indians and chinese. Looks like it is impossible to file under EB1 category once you become a quant. Any suggestions?

Are AIC,BIC model selection criterion used in finance too?

IS Statistical Design of Experiments covering full and fractional factoral designs at two and three levels, orthogonal arrays, response surface methodology, robust parameter design for production/process improvements of any use in quantitative finance? Is it worth investing time learning these...

I am confused by the books out there for stochastic calculus. I started with Baxter and then moved on to Shreve-2 for finance. But I am wondering how useful it is to read even more advanced books like karatzas shreve and rogers, williams. It will take a huge amount of time( more than one year)...

Can you give an example of a random variable that is finite almost everywhere but it has infinite expectation?

There is a calculus of variations graduate math course available next semester. How useful is calculus of variations in finance, especially a rigorous class on that? Is it better to spend time on other things and just learn basis calculus of variations myself?

What about Bayesian statistics specifically? Are they very useful?

Next semester I was planning to take a course. Due to schedule clashes I can take only one of Advanced Probability theory-2( in part 1 they already covered LLN and CLT) and Bayesian Statistics. Which one will be more useful for me going into finance? Advanced Probability theory-2 covers...

In university it takes 2 math courses to cover chung's book. It becomes so tedious to go over all these details of the proof and exercises. I just took one of those courses that covered till chapter 6 of chung. My question is it worth going through the rest of the chapters of Chung, especially...

Are u sponsoring H1 visa for students?

I agree with you on the whole, but I am sensitive about UCB( the error in ranking is too big). But I think you can survey the opinion among students about this one. I know hardly any person who has ranked Stanford finance program above the Berkeley program. When both programs have been...

UCB is ranked much below what it should be. It is actually in Top 2-3 if not the best.

Unfortunately the holes in this reasoning are so big, I will be more comfortable not giving an answer at all.

I must say it is a good start. But the number of cases to keep track increases almost exponentially going from this simple case to the harder problem.

No I do not agree yet. I am not convinced about how you arrived at 1/2 for the second probability. If I am correct, your intuition is to say that once the second person gets head and the first person gets tails, both have equal chance of winning. I do not agree for two reasons: 1) no...

I agree to the first probability. The second probability above does not seem to be 1/2. They are not symmetric events. Secondly, you also did not even include the possibily of tie by just seeing the cases X>Y and Y>X what about the case X=Y. Maybe I am incorrect, but I need to understand the...

He did not tell me the answer. I don't know. I felt so dumb not being able to do this question.

How can the outcome of the first toss completely decide the matter. We are not calculating expectation here. We are calculating probability.

Finishing this off is not trivial at all.

let's say A keep tossing a fair coin, until he get 2 consecutive heads, define X to be the number of tosses for this process; B keep tossing another fair coin, until he get 3 consecutive heads, define Y to be the number of the tosses for this process. Calculate P{X>Y} I found it to be the...

What are the kind of questions I can expect?

I will be interviewed for an algorithmic trading strategy desk. What kind of questions should I expect? Does the role involve a lot of programming?

What does Dominic say about preparing for interviews in two days time? That is the first 3 pages of the new document. It is not in the old one.

What kind of signal processing is used in Algo trading? I mean filtering techniques like wavelets are not useful for speech but are for images. So who knows if techniques from EE can be used in finance. Is signal processing from EE is basically used in time series analysis or there is use of...

I got three phone interview calls from 3 divisions of the same bank unexpectedly. And they all want to schedule interview this week or next week. One is in investment management, one in fixed income group, one as credit desk quant. I am not at all prepared for all of these interviews especially...

I wanted to know what kind of work does the investment management strategies group do in Goldman Sachs? Will the interview for the group be more CS oriented or math oriented?

Do we need to know all of the 4 areas in depth?

Yes but how much in depth I should know each of the 4 areas below. I dont have money to pay for CQF program. It is way too expensive for me. I will be graduating in June 2010, so when should I apply for jobs?

I am actually confused about the material I need to read before appearing for finance interview. I am finding there are four principal areas in Mathematics used in Finance: 1) Probability and Stochastic Integration 2) Numerical Methods and PDEs 3) Machine Learning and Time series Analysis 4)...

Actually the gap does not show up that much as I started in 2004 and will graduate in 2010. So two masters and a Phd should be good enough for 6 years,right? Or it is still better to included all the three masters. If I don't mention one masters, the one in aerospace engineering, will it be...

Thanks for your suggestion. I was just waiting for andy;s opinion also as he was suggesting not to keep all three degrees.

As none of my three masters are in finance or economics, I might look a confused person with all these degrees trying to enter finance. Obviously I am not sure about what is better and that is the reason why I am seeking the opinion of you guys. What is your take?

I am in a final year of my Phd looking to graduate Spring/Summer 2010. I did a lot of courses intensively. For my last masters I was just doing mathematics courses which I thought will useful even in my research. Yes one master is after the other. Now let me know whether I should exclude one...

You mean there is " no law" or there is a "law". What is your personal opinion about whether I should include 3 masters or not?

i think two will be electrical engineering and mathematics. but are three better. Need some more suggestions.

yes

I have a unique kind of problem and I am looking for help from folks here. I did my Bachelors from IIT and then came to Georgia Tech in 2004. Right now I am on course for my Phd in Electrical and Computer Engineering with emphasis on computer vision/image processing work. However, I have...

Is MATLAB a functional language as it does not modify variable inside a function? Does any other institute apart from Jane Street use a functional language like OCAML?

I am doing C++ book by Joshi. Will that be enough for C++ coding practice for finance interviews apart from reading some FAQ books, 50 ways book by Meyer? Could somebody list the bare minimum C++ items I ought to know to be prepared for an interview?

I wanted to go in the interview starting from September. I have only read Baxter and Rennie in finance and I was starting to read Mark Joshi's book. I have programmed more in C and only have done elementary C++. I did do a short course in C++ seven years ago in IIT but only now I am starting to...

how much knowledge? It will take so much time to prepare everything for interviews so I need to know the importance of multi-threading for quant positions. should I spend time to learn it?

Do you require multi-threading knowledge in C++ for getting a job as a quantitative analyst.?

I have experience in computer vision(PhD research) which uses PDE based variational methods,signal processing(Masters level courses and some projects) and control theory. I have done a Masters in Mathematics with Advanced Analysis, Hilbert Spaces, Statistics classes. Like you suggested I am...

Are u talking about baruch??

putting Masters on your CV Thanks for your great responses. I have one more question; I am doing a PhD in Electrical and computer Engineering and I have Masters in Aerospace Engineering(doing Control Theory), Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mathematics in that order. Should I omit the...

Basically banks are ruled out for H1-B what to speak of green card. Should I ask hedge fund guys whether they will be doing GC?

So big banks won't sponsor the green card, only hedge funds will? IF there is a 9 year wait it is good to start the processing asap, right?

I mean do hedge funds or banks sponsor GC at all? I said it is an important thing to know because GC for an Indian national takes about 6 years and you would want to join in places where such a possibility exists in future. Also are hedge fund jobs more volatile than bank jobs?

But basically is green card out of favor with any company right now?

So who sponsors green card hedge fund, the banks or neither. That is an important consideration to the company you are joining if you are Indian or Chinese as it takes a long time before you can get a green card and it is important to start the process asap.

I thought hedge funds are less secure and it is better to start with a big bank. Once laid ofw from a big bank you can go to a big bank but other way round in not true. Correct me if I am wrong.

So only Credit Suisse is hiring international students( even if I use 17 month OPT extension are banks e-verified) among all the leading banks like GS, JPMorgan,DB and UBS? Is there is a recruiter who can help me in this or should I apply directly.

I had a question. Are UBS and Deutche Bank hiring for their quant divisions, especially international students who need H1-visa? I could not find anything on their website. Is there a recruiter whom I can contact for these two banks. Which of the leading banks is hiring right now?

I have read Baxter and Rennie and have very basic C++ skills. How much time is required for preparation for interviews for quant positions? Can PhD students also apply for trading positions?

Are u from georgia tech? This year they admitted 60 people in the program and hardly any have got paid internships though I must admit some of the students are really sharp.

So if I am graduating in Spring/Summer I should start to apply in Fall? Also given that I only have elementary C++ knowledge and have read Baxter and Rennie how much time will it take for me to be prepared for an interview.

I am a PHD student in EE, with an additional Masters in Math. I am looking to graduate in Spring/Summer 2010. I had the confusion of when to start applying for jobs, Mark joshi says that you should apply only 2 months before graduation. IS it prudent considering I am an international student...

Georgia tech admits everybody so you can try there.

Should you know the field you want to work in as a quant if you are a PhD. How do you determine without working which field you like. I have a background in signal processing and computer vision. In computer vision I use PDE based methods and statistics for pattern recognition. What kind of job...

yan you are in morgan stanley right? So is nobody sponsoring h1 in finance industry right now? I know firms are hiring right now.

Will the H1-restrictions cease to exist once the banks return the TARP money.

I guess you are too confident. It is easy but not as easy as you made it out to be.

Just brainteasers.

Thanks a lot for your analysis. I really appreciate it.

i was dinged in the interview. I have a question but how are they even conducting interviews for me as I am an international student. Can they still sponsor H1-b for a phd student after receiving the money from bailout. I am confused.

no it is not 24. And the quantyst has pointed out the right approach to solve it. Keep trying but not in an interview. Interviews are painful you just have to do 500 brainteasers and 250 FAQ C questions to get in.

It is asking for expected value of the number of cereals to be purchased before you get all the four toys. You can assume all four toys have equal probability of being in any cereal box.

This was the hardest question I got in an interview. Consider there are cereal boxes of a top brand containing one of four different types of toys with equal probability. What is the expected value of the number of cereal boxes which a person will need to buy in order to complete the collection...

so PHd engineering people are placed in the quant developer role which is IT rather than finance right?

so PHd engineering people are placed in the quant developer role which is IT rather than finance right?

They just told me that it is Morgan Stanley Quantitative Finance Program and gave details below. No specific division has been mentioned as target for interview Morgan Stanley Innovative Data, Environments, Analytics & Systems (IDEAS), is an integrated quantitative and technology...

I got a telephone interview with morgan stanley for QR position for 30 minutes. Any idea what they will ask me? And are they really serious about recruiting? I told them that I am an international student and I am looking for summer intern. Do they just interview for fun? Regards Vivek

any idea for this question you have a deck of 52 cards, and you keep taking pairs of cards out of the deck. if a pair of cards are both red, then you win that pair; if a pair of cards are both black, then I win that pair; if a pair of cards has one red and one black, then it's discarded. If...

No it is with DRW chicago group. I don't have information about the products they want me to know. Also is DRW a good company?

ue and Bob take turns rolling a 6-sided die. Once either person rolls a 6 the game is over. Sue rolls first, if she doesn't roll a 6, Bob rolls the die, if he doesn't roll a 6, Sue rolls again. They continue taking turns until one of them rolls a 6. Bob rolls a 6 before Sue. What is the...

I have a interview with DRW for summer intern trader assistant position. Does anyone have any idea about the type of questions I can expect. Will I get programming questions or only problem solving?

I want to get an internship as an quant or quantitative risk analyst. Is there anybody here who can help me. I am pursuing a PhD in EE(signal processing) from a Georgia Tech and I have MS in Mathematics . My bachelors is from IIT Mumbai. Kindly mail me at vkaul1@yahoo.com. Vivek

Is there any hope to get internship as a quant or in quantitative risk for Summer 2009. I don't how and where to apply as I have no contact with people in that area. Any suggestions?

Is georgia tech QCF the worst finance program in the country

Is the tax in new york like 45% of the income including all taxes? then how do you live there even with 120k if 60k goes in taxes?

But what about the OPT status. Can the people take advantage of 18 month extension criteria for graduates if the person joins the finance industry? Also if I am PhD in EE and I go to finance can I take advantage of 18 month extension?

I don't think he sends it anymore.

Yes I want to apply for next Spring/Summer. But I thought company websites never have helped anybody. Do recruiters help more?

But what company websites are good for risk mangment interns for PhD students. I heard only contacts help and no company looks at their website. Vivek

I am a PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering with Master is Math from Georgia Tech and I wanted to apply for internship in Quantitative Risk/Risk Management. Can anybody help here? Any site recommendations or contacts? How important is getting an intern for a final job.

Yes that is true andy. That is why I am asking on his behalf. He doesn't know the role exactly though he has got some understanding of it. So that was the reason he asked what generally the strategies people do.

He is actually joining the NY team. He has a PHD in CS from UIUC and an exceptional academic record. I was wondering do they prefer to have CS people in strat?

My friend is joining the strategy group in goldman sachs and he wanted to know what exactly is the work there and how it is different from other quant roles. Any help?

So actually risk management needs both statistics and stochastic calculus, correct?

Can somebody explain what structured finance is? Is it same as investment banking? Are there opportunities for people with quant degrees to work there or they are looking for some other background?

4.0 is the scale

IS Integer programming useful for jobs in finance? What about convex and nonlinear optimization?

GPA is not a problem for me. I have GPA of 3.9 for masters in math and 4.0 for PhD and masters in ECE. Can you count the GPA of only the PhD courses you use towards your requirement? Anyway I am overall 3.9 so it doesn't matter much. But I thought it seems too childish to write GPA when you...

I am type INFP. That makes me a misfit in the world. Vivek

What happens if a PhD in engineering actually takes up a job in quant. Will he still be eligible for 17 month extension or it will be considered that he is working outside his area and therefore will not be eligible.

Do people write their GPA in their CV after being in the finance industry for 1-2 years?

What are the most finance jobs categorized as if people file for permanent residency(EB1 or EB2 category). How much time does it take to get labor certification and I140 approval on an average?

I haven't received the guide dominic. My email is vkaul1@yahoo.com Vivek

Thank you Andy for your reference. Finance is certainly an ocean and it is hard to pick a role which actually is a good match for one's skills. As suggested by you I will be going through that list. I especially mentioned risk is because you mentioned in one post that most of the middle office...

Thanks for the info. Model validation, building and risk management are the areas to look in middle office. These are what are called buy-side middle office jobs?

Thanks Andy. So the model validation group same as structurers group?

What are the middle office jobs available for a person with PhD in quantitative displine but no work experience in finance? Are most of these jobs in risk management? Or I can go to in structures or portfolio management or middle oficce quant ( if that exists) without work experience?

I am actually a PhD candidate in ECE at Georgia Tech and wanted to explore opportunities in Finance. I will be getting an additional masters in maths here(with two courses stochastic processes for finance and financial data analysis). My research is the area of signal processing, in fact more in...