Former trader / current portfolio strategist looking to up his quant/programming game - best paths?

[refreshingarca]

Gooooood morning all - looking forward to possibly getting skewered here on this question but here goes

I've spent close to 8 years in industry thus far and I'm very much so interested in upping my quant/programming knowledge to build out my use as a portfolio strategist and my question to you all is this : what should I focus on and are there any certain ways I should go about this? Coursera? Online programs? I'm not looking to leave the workforce, rather just build out my skillset :D

I don't particular care/need an incredibly strong 'brand' IMHO, rather I am looking for a method or approach that would be flexible. I also never took much math outside of Calc 1 and Stats 101 in undergrad, but I'm obviously quantitatively minded. Undergrad grades were very meh (though I was accepted to Chicago Booth for MBA but held off on that opportunity since I was able to land my desired post-MBA role) since I was solo since I was 17 so I'm not sure how much grades may also hold me back on a degree program per se.

Ultimately I am looking to build out my modeling/programming skillset with a focus on skills like manager research and portfolio optimization/asset allocation... any insight would be great.

had looked @ University of Washington's certificates/online programs, is there a quasi quant masters in finance thats either online or semi local to NYC (part time option) that I could take advantage of? Any other coursera or coursera like programs I should look at (Hopkins R?) or specific languages? matlab/R/Sql were mentioned to me.. appreciate all the help!

 

[mhy]

CMU has a Certificate program under MSCF.

MS in Computational Finance Program Options | Carnegie Mellon

Columbia also has an online Financial Engineering Certificate.

Online Degrees | Columbia University Engineering

Take a look at their curriculums and see if they interest you.

 

[Liam]

Gooooood morning all - looking forward to possibly getting skewered here on this question but here goes

I've spent close to 8 years in industry thus far and I'm very much so interested in upping my quant/programming knowledge to build out my use as a portfolio strategist and my question to you all is this : what should I focus on and are there any certain ways I should go about this? Coursera? Online programs? I'm not looking to leave the workforce, rather just build out my skillset :D

I don't particular care/need an incredibly strong 'brand' IMHO, rather I am looking for a method or approach that would be flexible. I also never took much math outside of Calc 1 and Stats 101 in undergrad, but I'm obviously quantitatively minded. Undergrad grades were very meh (though I was accepted to Chicago Booth for MBA but held off on that opportunity since I was able to land my desired post-MBA role) since I was solo since I was 17 so I'm not sure how much grades may also hold me back on a degree program per se.

Ultimately I am looking to build out my modeling/programming skillset with a focus on skills like manager research and portfolio optimization/asset allocation... any insight would be great.

had looked @ University of Washington's certificates/online programs, is there a quasi quant masters in finance thats either online or semi local to NYC (part time option) that I could take advantage of? Any other coursera or coursera like programs I should look at (Hopkins R?) or specific languages? matlab/R/Sql were mentioned to me.. appreciate all the help!

Somehow a better option often is to build a project and put it on GitHub. Even something basic that goes 'given internet feed of stock/derivative prices/interest rates build a strategy model to look for relative arbitrage' you cover many I/O and system issues that many dumb programming courses don't.

Maybe I am prejudiced against 'courses' but often comments I hear on online programming courses from practitioners can range from at worst "by the time you start it the course it will all be out of date" to at best "scratches the surface" and the ultimate comment - "it's no substitute for a BS degree or PhD/MSc". If you do use courses to learn I would just use them to learn new techniques to help with such a project but don't expect courses to be recognised like a brand name degree.

At the moment I am hearing rumours of people finishing math degrees with good grades doing Coursera data science courses and getting hired as data scientists, but my guess is that if it is happening it is because data science isn't as mature a market as quant finance, and that in a few years time such courses won't be as valuable as a PhD or specialised data science MSc. Maybe I am wrong with that and the quality of Coursera is better but my instincts tell me it is not all that valuable and that it's the math undergrad and skills picked up there that are the commodities of value being snapped up by employers.

I think the best bet would be to do an internal move that trains you in this regard. Sometimes managers do ask for you to do a training course in programming before doing such a move. Even if it is a crappy useless little course just do it. I know as I was in this situation in my last bank and the thing I learnt was that they had no issues with openly discussing leaving my team for another. And if you feel it will benefit you and your employer sell it that way.

And there are exceptions to what I say about courses - I'm sure some on this forum like Daniel Duffy will flog their options to you and they will give advice how on to build the skill set up as some courses like the one he gives give people the right projects to do to learn programming and modelling skills properly.

 

[Philip_Mitterrand]

There is nothing called semi quant.

"Either you do or don't do it. There is nothing called try" - Yoda.

Gooooood morning all - looking forward to possibly getting skewered here on this question but here goes

I've spent close to 8 years in industry thus far and I'm very much so interested in upping my quant/programming knowledge to build out my use as a portfolio strategist and my question to you all is this : what should I focus on and are there any certain ways I should go about this? Coursera? Online programs? I'm not looking to leave the workforce, rather just build out my skillset :D

I don't particular care/need an incredibly strong 'brand' IMHO, rather I am looking for a method or approach that would be flexible. I also never took much math outside of Calc 1 and Stats 101 in undergrad, but I'm obviously quantitatively minded. Undergrad grades were very meh (though I was accepted to Chicago Booth for MBA but held off on that opportunity since I was able to land my desired post-MBA role) since I was solo since I was 17 so I'm not sure how much grades may also hold me back on a degree program per se.

Ultimately I am looking to build out my modeling/programming skillset with a focus on skills like manager research and portfolio optimization/asset allocation... any insight would be great.

had looked @ University of Washington's certificates/online programs, is there a quasi quant masters in finance thats either online or semi local to NYC (part time option) that I could take advantage of? Any other coursera or coursera like programs I should look at (Hopkins R?) or specific languages? matlab/R/Sql were mentioned to me.. appreciate all the help!

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Thank you, Liam.