New member saying hello!

[numbersdontlie]

Hello Quant Network,

I am currently a senior at a state university pursuing a degree in finance. I am very interested in learning more about various quant techniques. Here is a general idea of where I'm at:

-Math comes very easy to me.
-Intern for equity options broker over the summer.
-No programming experience.

Where would you all recommend I begin? Personally, I think its unrealistic to obtain a career as a quant because I am not at a top school. So, a lot of my "self-learning" will be for personal use and to put on my resume.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

If you like to do something for personal interest, I would suggest starting off with the free guides on my reading list.
Master reading list for quants, MFE students | Quant Network
Master reading list for Quants, MFE (Financial Engineering) students - Forum | Quant Network

Once you break it down, "quant" is a loose term used for people who do various roles, such as quant developers, modelers, quant analyst, so on and so forth. You can't call yourself a "quant" without any programming experience.

So start it off with any programming you like (Mathlab/C++/C#/ or even VBA), build something. Get a book and try to build a model, try to replicate the numbers they produce, etc.

You can learn by doing it. Keep doing it for a while. Imagine that's what your work will be and if you see yourself doing that hours everyday, then it may be your career.