• C++ Programming for Financial Engineering
    Highly recommended by thousands of MFE students. Covers essential C++ topics with applications to financial engineering. Learn more Join!
    Python for Finance with Intro to Data Science
    Gain practical understanding of Python to read, understand, and write professional Python code for your first day on the job. Learn more Join!
    An Intuition-Based Options Primer for FE
    Ideal for entry level positions interviews and graduate studies, specializing in options trading arbitrage and options valuation models. Learn more Join!

Demand for Quants...

Joined
6/5/07
Messages
348
Points
26
Demand for Quants Heats Up on Wall Street But Recruitment is Hard
As trading becomes more mathematical and firms look to revamp their risk management systems, the demand for quantitative skill sets is never ending.
By Ivy Schmerken
Wall Street & Technology
November 26, 2007
blank.gif

CHALLENGE: The demand for quantitative competence is rising in IT departments and trading desks across Wall Street. But the supply of talent with strong math, programming and technology skills is hard to find.

Why It's Important: Algorithmic trading in equities is becoming more pervasive and is expanding from foreign exchange (FX) into fixed income, options and futures. But as markets become more efficient due to high-frequency trading, algorithms that used to work for a year in FX now are viable for only 90 days, so there will be a constant need for new quants to come up with new ideas and build new algos. However, the supply of quants is scarce and firms will need to retain them. As a result of the recent credit market crisis in subprime mortgages and CDOs, there also is a focus on building or revising risk management systems. Hedge funds will not be able to attract money from institutional investors or funds-of-funds unless they can demonstrate an effective risk management system.


Where the Industry Is Now: There always has been demand for quants to work close to front-office trading and structuring positions. Lots of quants work in the derivatives areas of large investment banks doing derivatives pricing and risk management. The biggest explosion occurred in credit-related derivatives, or credit default swaps, as a way to isolate and, for the first time, hedge the credit risk inherent in equities, fixed income and derivatives. One hot area is writing cross-asset or hybrid contracts that span all asset classes. It's rare for quants to work in IT; most often they are working for the business unit or a centrally organized quant group. But there are quants sitting in proprietary trading groups, risk groups and sales positions.


Focus in 2007: Sell-side firms will recruit quants to work on algorithmic trading systems to design new algorithms, program the models and back-test them against historical data. With the growth of high-frequency trading, prime brokers and investment banks also are employing quants with backgrounds in physics and math to figure out how to process more trades in the back office. And because of the recent turmoil in the credit markets, there will be demand for quants to help firms recalibrate their risk management systems.


Industry Leaders: All of the top investment banks have groups developing algorithmic trading strategies for other asset classes. Banc of America Securities is expanding its algorithms beyond equities into futures before the end of 2007, starting out with the plain vanilla equity-linked index futures that trade on the CME. BAS plans to add more-complex contracts, such as Eurodollars and equity options, down the road. On the buy side, Barclays Global Investors and State Street Global Advisors are said to be at the top of the quant game.


Technology Providers: There are third-party providers of analytics on the market, such as SuperDerivatives and NumeriX, for pricing OTC derivatives. In terms of building models, Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) supplies libraries of analytical code that quants incorporate into their models (clients include Fidelity, S&P, Wachovia and Deutsche Bank). Another contender is Quantstar, a services company that provides financial analytics and quantitative consulting. The founder is John Birge, a quant who leads the financial engineering program at University of Chicago. But most of the sell-side firms build their own proprietary platforms for algorithmic trading. However, Weeden & Co. partnered with Pragma Financial Systems, a third-party algorithmic development shop in New York.


Price Tag: Total compensation for quants with two to three years of experience is about $150,000 to $200,000 annually, and the recruiter typically earns anywhere from 25 percent to 30 percent of the candidate's first year salary, which is guaranteed. More senior quants can make anywhere from $200,000 to more than $1 million. Sell-side firms recruit from universities that offer masters in financial engineering programs but usually like to hire quants with two to three years' experience in finance.

***
A little dated, but not too much.

link to article: Demand for Quants Heats Up on Wall Street But Recruitment is Hard by Wall Street & Technology
 
Interesting read. I would say that things have not changed that much since the time of the article. There seems to be more mention of risk management everywhere nowadays. Not sure if it's just for show or the start of a new trend ;)
On the buy side, Barclays Global Investors and State Street Global Advisors are said to be at the top of the quant game.
Surprised to know that State Street is big on the quant game. I think Alain used to be State Street but he never mentioned anything about quant.
Sell-side firms recruit from universities that offer masters in financial engineering programs but usually like to hire quants with two to three years' experience in finance.
That seems like the sweet spot , 2-3 years of experience. Not too senior and flexible enough to move around.
 
Surprised to know that State Street is big on the quant game. I think Alain used to be State Street but he never mentioned anything about quant.

SSGA is the investment arm. They are in Boston and yes, the are heavy quant oriented. It's like a totally different world in comparison with the rest of the company.
 
Price Tag: Total compensation for quants with two to three years of experience is about $150,000 to $200,000 annually,

It sounds reasonable for locations such as NY, London or Hong Kong. I am currently based in Melbourne, moved from Boston three years ago. Au$$150,000 to $200,000 is for a 5 years quant, plus heavy tax and compulsary super contribution of 9%. So Quants here get only about half after tax(and others) cash compared with the rest of the world. So there is no wonder why so many have moved overseas from here to get mroe cash!!!:dance:
 
Back
Top