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I would like to transition myself to become a Quant developer, any advice?

Ajay chandel

Joined
2/23/23
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Hello There,

Thank you for reading my post!

I'm an experienced c# developer with 12+ years of experience in multiple domains and I'm open to learning new languages or tech!

Lately, I got to know about the Quant positions while I was working in the finance domain and I have a huge interest in becoming a quant developer, I will appreciate it if I can get advice on how I can start my journey to becoming a Quant developer.
 
"quant developer" is typically used for a developer working on some aspects of a trading / pricing / risk-management system. It usually doesn't involve algorithm development / research itself. As such it doesn't really require any special quantitative skills though being comfortable reading algorithm documentation is very useful. I work for a trading firm and our hiring process for quant developers is very similar to what you would find at any tech company. This is also a warning not to have unrealistic expectations as to what kind of problems you will be working on. An interest in markets is a plus but no particular knowledge is required. Regarding C++ / Python mentioned above - this really depends on what the company is using. Lots of trading firms are using Java or C# in the parts that are not super latency sensitive and Python mostly for analysis.
 
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There are various roles broadly classified as Quant Devs. To name few:
1. Quant Devs in trading strategy development (or similar to low-latency or trading algo devs). Predominantly concentrate on tech skills (most firms use C++ for this)
2. Desk Quant Devs: Build simple quant analytics tools for trading desk (to help on daily trading analytics/automation). Need a tech+domain skills (most firms use C# or python or F# or OCaml)
3. Risk Quant Devs: Risk modelling/aggregation/downstream integrations with risk. Mainly tech (but good to have domain skills) expectation. (Many firms use Java)
4. Quant Devs in pricing: Mostly for structured products. Solid math and tech skills are expected here (mostly C++ heavy)

But these days, all these roles might be using Python in someway (like for data analytics, process automation, back testing, scenario analysis, ML etc)
Since 1 & 4 emphasis more on speed, mostly use C++ as their language.

NOTE: There are still many roles which are called as "Quant Devs", which I haven't mentioned here.
 
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