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Career advice on algorithmic trading

If you want to work as an algo trader, you should do your PhD in

  • social media sentiment tracking

    Votes: 1 5.3%
  • digital signal processing

    Votes: 5 26.3%
  • neuro networks and genetic algorithms

    Votes: 5 26.3%
  • other

    Votes: 10 52.6%

  • Total voters
    19
Joined
11/7/11
Messages
5
Points
11
I'm a computer science graduate and I'm quite interested in Algorithmic Trading. So far, I've been developing web applications and Android apps as a software engineer. That means I'm an expert Java programmer.

I was thinking about doing a PhD in social media sentiment tracking as a natural language processing research associate. I was also thinking about learning digital signal processing, neuro networks and genetic algorithms.

If I do my PhD in social media sentiment tracking, will I be able to work as a quant for an algorithmic trading firm? Or should I do research in some other area? Generally, what courses should I take and what skills should I acquire so that I can work in this field?
 
Since we're on topic, could anyone give me names of some trading firm that are known for algo trading?
 
I was thinking about doing a PhD in social media sentiment tracking as a natural language processing research associate. I was also thinking about learning digital signal processing, neuro networks and genetic algorithms.
I would suspect that if you want to do a PhD on a particular subject, you may want to read everything you can about that topic first. For example, take a look at how financial firms are using social media as input data and read as many research paper on this area as possible.
Here is a good place to start http://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/2311/algorithmic-trading-based-on-social-media

Though I would caution that by the time you finish with your PhD, social media and/or algo trading may become a thing of the past. Trendy things don't last long.
 
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