Quant Analyst vs Quant Trader

[Yifan Wang]

I know quant analyst is a kind of quant in a general sense, but I am kinda confused abt the quant trader, is it just like a trader using quantitative strategies, and what kind of education background/skill set it needs? and I guess you can be quant prop trader? or hedge fund quant trader?

Andy Nguyen

Thanks

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Simply put, quant trader is a quant who trades
I used to work for one who has a PhD in Math. Quant prop trader vs hedge fund quant trader is simple what type of employer it is. Prop trading in investment banks is a dying breed due to Frank-Dodd but there are plenty of prop houses elsewhere, specially in Chicago. You can take a look at the list of prop trading firms in our list here.

As far as background goes, from my experience, they are all from technical/quantitative background. They build their own tools, come up with their own trading strategies and manage their own books.
Strategies can be from very technical to microeconomic events.

 

[Yifan Wang]

Thanks Andy Nguyen
I am thinking about a career path of
front-office quant analyst/desk quant or algo trading analyst (3-4 yrs) ----->
1)com-sci/stats phd to be quant trader
2)quant prop house trader/hedge fund quant trader(10 yrs)
----->trying to found a quant hedge fund myself

Is my ST/LT goal reasonable?haha sorry if it looks dumb.