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Quant Analyst vs Quant Trader

Yifan Wang

C++ Certificate
Joined
5/14/12
Messages
40
Points
118
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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